ABSTRACT
Inclusive fitness optimisation provides the motivation for altruism and social cooperation; however, the situations that favour cooperative and altruistic behaviour are not explained, as to do this would require knowledge of the costs and benefits of that behaviour. If social behaviour within a group is the means to achieve inclusive fitness for individuals, it does so through the competitive and broader contextual performance of the group. Individual behaviour derives from signals received and the cues that they elicit. Tit-for-tat is a reciprocal altruism strategy, as it is a strongly reciprocal behaviour. Interdependence theory is a theory of outcomes. It is concerned with the valuation of outcomes on which behavioural strategies are determined and an explanation of the role of situation. The cognition of the interdependence situation within a dyad does not occur as the result of a homogenous experience, but through the aggregation of a range of attributes of the interaction.
