On the relative importance of haplo-diploidy, assortative mating and social synergy on the evolutionary emergence of social behavior

Advances in multiagent simulation techniques make it possible to study more realistic dynamics of complex systems and allow evolutionary theories to b e tested. Here I use simulations to assess the relative importance of repro ductive systems (haplodiploidy vs. diploidy), mate selection (assortative m ating vs. random mating) and social economics (pay-off matrices of evolutio nary games) in the evolutionary dynamics leading to the emergence of social cooperation in the provision of parental care. The simulations confirm tha t haplo-diploid organisms and organisms mating assortatively have a higher probability for fixing alleles and require less favorable conditions for th eir fixation, than diploids or organisms mating randomly. The simulations s howed that social behavior was most likely to emerge a) when the cost for p arental investment was much lower than the benefits to the offspring, b) wh en cooperation improved synergistically the fitness of offspring compared t o the corresponding egoistic behavior and c) when alleles coding for altrui stic or social behavior could be rapidly fixed in the population, thanks to mechanisms such as haplo-diploidy and/or assortative mating. Cooperative s ocial behavior always appeared if sociality conferred much higher fitness g ains compared to non cooperative alternatives suggesting that the most impo rtant factors for the emergence and maintenance of social behavior are thos e based on energetic or efficiency considerations. The simulations, in cong ruence with the scant experimental evidence available, suggest that economi c considerations rather than genetic ones are critical in explaining the em ergence and maintenance of sociality.