Kin Selection
Hamilton's kin selection theory explains why organisms sacrifice for relatives.
W.D. Hamilton's kin selection theory explains why organisms sacrifice for relatives. An individual's alarm call protects siblings, offspring, and relatives who share its genes. By protecting kin, the alarm-caller increases its inclusive fitness - copies of its genes that survive in relatives' offspring - even if calling increases its own predation risk.
Hamilton's rule predicts altruistic behaviors evolve when: benefit to recipient × relatedness > cost to caller. In many species, alarm callers live in kin groups, making this inequality favorable. Prairie dogs in a colony are often close relatives, explaining their elaborate alarm calling despite personal costs.
Business Application of Kin Selection
Employees more readily raise alarms and take risks when they identify strongly with their team or organization - organizational 'kinship' through shared identity and culture creates willingness to sacrifice for collective benefit.
Discovery
W.D. Hamilton (1964)
Explained the evolution of altruistic behaviors through inclusive fitness and genetic relatedness