Quote Originally Posted by Lemur
I understand your argument, but I think you're missing a key point -- behavior which encourages group survival while also encouraging survival of those who are genetically close to you can be a genetically beneficial strategy. In other words, if I sacrifice myself to save my brother and his wife, I am not being genetically stupid. My brother's genes are very similar to my own, so my sacrifice has helped propogate 99.999% of my genes.

Let's leave off the bees and ants, since the workers are asexual. Look at the group dynamics of wolves, or better yet (since they're cute) meerkats. Only the alpha pair are allowed to breed. Any other pups get killed. So why do the daughters and sons of the alphas stay in the pack? What advantage is there for them individually? From your perspective, none. From my perspective, plenty.

Respect the herd ...

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No, I don't think you understand my argument. The advantage for the individual wolf from my perspective is that running in a pack is essential for their survival. The non-alpha in the pack has following options:
staying in the pack -> no mate, possible survival
leaving the pack -> no mate, death garanteed

Of course it's an adaptive strategy to stay in the pack and hope to get a chance to procreate. If they get a chance to replace the alpha male, they'll do it. If they have the opportunity to mate, they'll do it. Genes are egoistical and anything apart from their own existence is means to increase their chance of survival.