This project involved several separate investigations of social adaptation, including a mix of verbal theory, mathematical modelling, numerical simulation and empirical analysis. Some themes include: the development of geometrical approaches; the discovery of unanticipated, multi-trait interactions that overturn classic understanding; clearly communicating--and changing the way we think about--fundamental results; and widening the scope of the kinship theory of genomic imprinting, with application to phenotypes that are central to the human experience and are of clinical importance. Each of the following investigations resulted in a separate research publication:
We developed mathematical models to investigate why human warfare has historically been an almost-exclusively male activity.
We developed inclusive fitness theory for application to affinal kin, i.e. "in laws".
We performed empirical and theoretical analyses of the origin and invasion of male haploidy across the full range of sex-determination mechanisms and sib-mating rates.
We outlined the need for studies of sexual selection to incorporate heterospecifics as part of the social environment, using simulations to show that this alters classic predictions.
Humans spend large portions of their time and energy talking to one another, yet it has been unclear whether this activity is primarily selfish or altruistic; we showed how genomic imprinting may provide an answer.
We performed a theoretical analysis of how kin selection shapes investment into sleep versus wakefulness, yielding predictions for genomic imprinting and clinical pathologies.
We explored the effect of heterogeneity in resource availability on cooperation using a mixture of theory and experiments measuring siderophore production in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
We developed a kin-selection model of altruism performed by men and women for the benefit of their groupmates in a population experiencing warfare.
We developed a gene’s eye view of sexual antagonism to reconcile apparently contradictory results and generate new predictions.
We gave an accessible account of the Price equation, including how it is derived, what it is saying and why this is useful to evolutionary biology.
We developed a mathematical model of sexual conflict that incorporates kin discrimination and different patterns of dispersal.
We performed a general mathematical analysis to assess whether, when and how kin discrimination modulates cooperation.
We developed theory on how kin discrimination affects sex ratio and conducted an experimental test using parasitoid wasps.
We reviewed hypotheses linking dispersal to the evolution of genomic imprinting.
We made a case for the usefulness of the agent concept within evolutionary biology.
We performed genetic analysis to establish that males and outbreeding occur in the hermaphrodite insects Icerya purchasi.
We developed mathematical models showing how different parts of a male's genome may come into conflict over the level of harm exhibited toward females.
We developed mathematical models to show how a predisposition to religiosity can yield kin selected benefits and result in particular patterns of genomic imprinting.
We reviewed the theory of reproductive value and its application to altruism.
We overturned a classic result of social evolution theory, showing that individuals will exhibit density dependent behaviour if allowed to do so and that this results in altruism being promoted in viscous populations.
We applied our gene's eye view of sexual antagonism to the biology of male haploidy.
We developed mathematical models to investigate how paternal genome elimination promotes male altruism.
We overturned a classic result of sex ratio theory, showing that individuals will exhibit density dependent behaviour if allowed to do so and that this results in female-biased sex ratios being promoted in viscous populations.
We developed mathematical models of dormancy to show how dispersal in time mirrors classic results given for dispersal in space.
We develop mathematical models to show how inheritance of social status modulates the evolution of cooperation.
We reviewed the historical development of the concept of inclusive fitness and its application to the understanding of social behaviours.
We developed R. A. Fisher's geometric model of adaptation to consider two agents in conflict, showing that this drives substantial maladaptation and that modular design promotes complex adaptation.
We applied our gene's eye view of sexual antagonism to taxa that exhibit sex change.
We reviewed the history of the central argument of sex-ratio theory, showing that the “rarer-sex effect” was first correctly outlined by J. A. Cobb in 1914.
We provided the first definitive proof that R. A. Fisher was aware of J. A. Cobb’s account of the rarer-sex effect.
We explained how W. D. Hamilton arrived at a famous—but incorrect—sex ratio prediction.
We conducted an individual-based simulation study to assess our mathematical treatment of the sex ratio under density-dependent dispersal.
We mathematically formalised a hypothesis about the inclusive fitness value of ancestor worship.
We developed R. A. Fisher's geometric model of adaptation for application to social behaviour, showing that altruism is expected to evolve more slowly and in smaller steps than non-social behaviour.
We developed mathematical models to explore how kin selection modulates the balance between right- and left-handedness, yielding predictions as to sex differences, genomic imprinting and clinical phenotypes.
We used mathematical models to investigate a father's sex ratio optimum in a viscous population setting, showing that density-dependent dispersal reduces sex-ratio conflict.
We used mathematical models to investigate how kin selection shapes metamorphosis.
We developed a mathematical model in which individuals exercise some choice over who will be their social partner and showed that this promotes cooperation.
