ABSTRACT
In 1930, based on Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the laws of inheritance set out by Gregor Mendel, the Oxford scholar Ronald Fisher formulated his idea that animals’ social behaviour is primarily steered in evolutionary terms by their ability to generate a vigorous and sizeable progeny. He called this capacity reproductive fitness. Individuals whose behaviour improves their chances of successful reproduction thereby increase the spread of their genes, and in turn the propagation of the behaviour that produces such a result.
