Sunday, November 05, 2006
[edit] Evolutionary stable strategies
Another driving force in the evolution of animal behavior is the concept of an evolutionary stable strategy (or ESS), a term derived from economic game theory which became prominent after John Maynard Smith's 1982 book, Evolution and the Theory of Games. However, the concept can be traced back (as with most evolutionary ideas) to W.D. Hamilton, R.A. Fisher and Charles Darwin. In short, evolutionary game theory asserts that only strategies that cannot be "invaded" by another strategy will be maintained in the population. Therefore, animal behavior can be said to be governed not only by what is optimal, but also by what other strategies are found in the population. Furthermore, the relative frequencies of each strategy can influence the fitness of the other strategies in the population (frequency dependence). It is important to consider that evolution is not only driven by the physical environment, but also the interactions between other individuals.
Another driving force in the evolution of animal behavior is the concept of an evolutionary stable strategy (or ESS), a term derived from economic game theory which became prominent after John Maynard Smith's 1982 book, Evolution and the Theory of Games. However, the concept can be traced back (as with most evolutionary ideas) to W.D. Hamilton, R.A. Fisher and Charles Darwin. In short, evolutionary game theory asserts that only strategies that cannot be "invaded" by another strategy will be maintained in the population. Therefore, animal behavior can be said to be governed not only by what is optimal, but also by what other strategies are found in the population. Furthermore, the relative frequencies of each strategy can influence the fitness of the other strategies in the population (frequency dependence). It is important to consider that evolution is not only driven by the physical environment, but also the interactions between other individuals.
