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Helpful Behaviour

Why Help Others?

Helpful behaviour is sometimes called an "evolutionary puzzle," because, at first glance, its evolution seems so improbable. Why should an individual do something that reduces its own fitness, while increasing the fitness of a potential competitor? Is it not better to choose to be selfish instead?

It turns out that helpful behaviours confer all kinds of advantages. In particular, our research in this area looks at the ways in which population structure (e.g. spatial structure, group structure) promotes the spread of helpful tendencies. My research also touches on the kind of help parents provide their offspring, and vice versa.