The quantitative study of evolution of behaviors has included a broad range of approaches. Following Hamilton’s (1969) groundbreaking genetic analysis of the evolution of altruistic traits, ecologists, economists, political scientists, and population geneticists have constructed and analyzed mathematical models of behaviors that are costly to the individual that performs them but potentially beneficial to others in the same populations. Since many such behaviors are unlikely to be under genetic control, the mathematical framework of cultural transmission and evolution has emerged as an alternative to the genetic models inspired by Hamilton’s work.
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