Inclusive fitness includes not only the contribution towards fitness (used by evolutionary biologists to describe the capacity a gene has to survive and reproduce itself) that a gene makes by compelling its owner to raise and protect its own young, but also that which it makes by behaving altruistically towards another who shares the gene. Such individuals are generally kin.
See also: selfish gene, kin selection
Last updated: 10-11-2005 11:59:44