Sociobiology: Overview

‘Sociobiology’ refers to the study of social phenomena as products of Darwinian selection. It has been the dominant approach to the study of animal social behavior since the late 1960s, although the term has fallen from fashion. Its principal architects were G.C. Williams, who persuaded biologists that selection produces adaptive attributes that serve the interests of individuals, not groups, and W.D. Hamilton, who expanded Darwin’s concept of …