[R-sig-ME] Group selection and multi-level modeling

[Dominick Samperi]

On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 1:16 AM, David Duffy <David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au> wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Apr 2012, Dominick Samperi wrote:
>
>> The new E. O. Wilson book 'The Social Conquest of Earth" claims
>> that the long dismissed idea of group selection is gaining some
>> traction in part due to "multi-level modeling."
>>
>> Can anyone point to work that aims to support this idea and
>> that employs the kind of models and software that is discussed
>> here on the SIG-ME list?
>
>
> Like http://www.pnas.org/content/108/35/14426.full (uses MLwin)?
> Are you thinking of multi-level selection, perhaps?  From my limited
> reading, group selection is still pooh-poohed by a lot of people in the
> field.

Thank you for the pointer David. This article seems to challenge the idea
by replacing group selection notions with environmental effects. I am
thinking of
"group selection" as multi-level selection, which would include the
environment (another level).

Wilson says the new understanding "opposes the theory of inclusive fitness
and replaces it with standard models of population genetics applied to
multiple levels of natural selection."

Perhaps the term "group selection" simply comes with too much baggage
and can be easily misinterpreted.

Dominick

> I am more familiar with attempts to model assortment and gene-environment
> covariation, which give rise to recursive systems that are more easily
> modelled in a structural equation type framework.
>
> Just 2c, David Duffy.
>
> --
> | David Duffy (MBBS PhD)                                         ,-_|\
> | email: davidD at qimr.edu.au  ph: INT+61+7+3362-0217 fax: -0101  /     *
> | Epidemiology Unit, Queensland Institute of Medical Research   \_,-._/
> | 300 Herston Rd, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia  GPG 4D0B994A v