File:Darwin's_finches_by_Gould.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
sociobiology
Sign in to saveSociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is closely related to evolutionary anthropology, human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and sociology.
Sociobiology is a field of biology that explains why animals and humans behave socially the way they do by looking at how evolution shaped those behaviors. It combines insights from multiple sciences—including psychology, genetics, and anthropology—to understand everything from family structures to cooperation and conflict in both human and animal societies.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Research
1,138 papers- The Sociobiology of Brain Tumors.ReviewAdvances in experimental medicine and biology · 2020Gutmann DHDOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-35727-6_8
- Sociobiology of the budding yeast.ReviewJournal of biosciences · 2014Wloch-Salamon DMDOI: 10.1007/s12038-013-9344-5
- The sociobiology of biofilms.ReviewFEMS microbiology reviews · 2009Nadell CD, Xavier JB, Foster KRDOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2008.00150.x
- More than Simple Parasites: the Sociobiology of Bacteriophages and Their Bacterial Hosts.ReviewmBio · 2020Secor PR, Dandekar AADOI: 10.1128/mBio.00041-20
- Sociobiology meets oncology: unraveling altruistic cooperation in cancer cells and its implications.ReviewExperimental & molecular medicine · 2025Bin Masroni MS, Koay ES, Lee VKM et al.DOI: 10.1038/s12276-024-01387-9
- Clinical sociobiology.American journal of medical genetics · 1980Karp LEDOI: 10.1002/ajmg.1320060102
- A defense of sociobiology.ReviewCold Spring Harbor symposia on quantitative biology · 2009Foster KRDOI: 10.1101/sqb.2009.74.041
- Sociobiology.Journal of medical ethics · 1984Midgley MDOI: 10.1136/jme.10.3.158
via PubMed
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
13 sectionsContents
- Definition
- History
- Theory
- Natural selection
- In humans
- Genetics
- Reception
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of human societies, sociobiology is closely related to evolutionary anthropology, human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and sociology.
Sociobiology investigates social behaviors such as mating patterns, territorial fights, pack hunting, and the hive society of social insects. It argues that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, so also it led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behavior.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sociobiology” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.