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Social evolution is a subdiscipline of evolutionary biology that is concerned with social behaviors that have fitness consequences for individuals other than the actor. Social evolution is heavily dependent on the existing ideology of Social Darwinism, this Darwinian concept of evolution to history and society was first applied by sociologist text. Social Darwinism does not mean the doctrine of evolution which Darwin primarily emphasized, in species existence. Social Darwinism is rather the elimination of traits/ideologies which poorly fit society, and the survival of those which fit superior to the given environment. Social behaviors can be categorized according to the fitness consequences they entail for the actor and recipient.


 * Mutually beneficial – a behavior that increases the direct fitness of both the actor and the recipient
 * Selfish – a behavior that increases the direct fitness of the actor, but the recipient suffers a loss
 * Altruistic – a behavior that increases the direct fitness of the recipient, but the actor suffers a loss
 * Spiteful – a behavior that decreases the direct fitness of both the actor and the recipient
 * Cooperation - a behavior that benefits another individual (the recipient) and which is maintained (at least partially) because of its beneficial effect on the recipient

This classification was proposed by W. D. Hamilton. He proposes that natural selection favors mutually beneficial or selfish behaviors. Hamilton's insight was to show how kin selection could explain altruism and spite. Kin selection requires a sufficiently high degree of relatedness between cooperating individuals. W. D. Hamilton suggested two possible mechanisms for this; First, limited dispersal population viscosity would tend to keep relatives together. In this case, altruism directed indiscriminately towards all neighbors will be favored as neighbors tend to be relatives.

Social evolution is also often regarded (especially, in the field of social anthropology) as evolution of social systems and structures.

In 2010, famed Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson, a founder of modern sociobiology, proposed a new theory of social evolution. He argued that the traditional approach of focusing on eusociality had limitations, which he illustrated primarily with examples from the insect world.