EDWARD WILSON has given us a characteristically fascinating account of the evolution of social insects (see “Kinship doesn’t matter – how insects are altruistic” and BioScience, vol 58, p 17). But his “group selection” terminology is misleading, and his distinction between “kin selection” and “individual direct selection” is empty.
What matters is gene selection. All we need ask of a purportedly adaptive trait is, “What makes a gene for that trait increase in frequency?” Wilson wrongly implies that explanations should resort to kin selection only when “direct” selection fails. Here he falls for the first of my “12 misunderstandings of…
