Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society.

ABSTRACT: Explaining the rapid evolution of human cooperation and its role in our species' biodemographic success remains a major evolutionary puzzle. To address this challenge, we tested a social drive hypothesis, which predicts that social plasticity and social selection in human groups cause indirect genetic effects that accelerate the adaptation of fitness, promoting population growth via feedback between the environmental causes and evolutionary consequences of cooperation. Using Bayesian multilevel models to analyze fertility data from a small-scale society, we demonstrate that density- and frequency-dependent indirect genetic effects on fitness promote the evolution of cooperation among neighboring women, increasing the rate of contemporary adaptation by ~5×. Our results show how interactions

SUBMITTER: Martin JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12309698 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature