Reciprocal Altruism

The big question here is why an animal would behave in ways which appears to benefit others. The most common explanation is that the behavior is driven by kin selection; the animals are related and evolutionary benefits can be measured that result from the behavior. Another common explanation is that the animal is actually acting selfishly; it benefits more from the behavior than do the other animals.

Sometimes, though, helping behavior cannot be explained by kin selection or selfishness. Instead, the animals involve may genuinely be helping each other. This has been called reciprocal altruism.

The prisoner's dilemma, which we've already discussed, describes a stable form of reciprocal altruism, which can persist in the absence of kinship

are alarm calls an example of reciprocal altruism?

Trivers, R. L. 1971. The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quart. Rev. Biol. 46:35-57.