Talk:Cheating (biology)

Humans and bees
Supposedly, "killer" Africanized bees are a result of the differences between the biological relationships between humans and honeybees in Africa and elsewhere. In other parts of the world, notably Europe and America, honeybees have a symbiotic relationship with human beekeepers, who take honey but provide a safe hive and protection for bees. African honeybees have developed to deal with humans "stealing" honey rather than beekeeping, and as a result are more aggressive.

The difference between human/honeybee relationships in Europe and America, and those in Africa, seem to form some kind of example regarding cheating. --FOo 08:14, 20 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't think that's a very good example and I don't think it should be included in the article. Peter G Werner 08:21, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Cheating is...
In biology, cheating is a form of social behavior in which the cheater refrains from cooperation and thereby gains a fitness benefit. He exploits the cooperative behavior of others, but the term is not interchangeable with exploitation. Resource exploitation such as herbivory and predation are not social behaviors and it does not make much sense calling them a form of cheating. --The Ecologist 21:06, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Incorrect
''The Prisoner's dilemma is a tit for tat strategy that helps to avoid cheaters. When one organism cooperates, the other cooperates. When one organism cheats, the other organism cheats. ''

This is incorrect. A "Prisoner's dilemma" is a type of a game (situation), not a strategy. "Tit for tat" is a strategy where a person chooses the same strategy as the other person in the game in the previous round. In a static setting "When one organism cooperates, the other cooperates. When one organism cheats, the other organism cheats" is a description of a game characterized by multiple equilibria and coordination failure - which is not a characteristic of a Prisoner's Dilemma.

The examples given in the section are also not examples of a PD (and appear to be incorrect even in their own context, for example "Producers benefit when scroungers are common. " - this seems to be wrong (the model appears to be the same as a classic rent-seeking model in economics)).Volunteer Marek (talk) 20:55, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

This article needs some love
Unsure where to start. A lot of large blocks of text with very specialized language. 132.60.240.130 (talk) 16:14, 9 June 2020 (UTC)