Meanings
- uncountableevolutionbiologyA form of natural selection whereby traits that may be disadvantageous to the individual can be propagated when they are advantageous to the survival of a group as a whole.First known use 19th c.
Ever since, students of evolution have been taught that group selection is possible in principle; it just happens that it can be ignored in practice. Generations of students have learned about group selection with the help of a Gary Larson 'Far […]
2007, Louise Barrett, Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 511 more example
Although so-called “group selection” has enjoyed some increased followership of late, the overwhelming consensus among evolutionary biologists is that it is unlikely to be an important cause of evolution among nonhuman animals, for a number of reasons […].
2016, David P. Barash, Out of Eden, Oxford, page 164
Cite this entry
group selection. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/group%20selection
“group selection.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/group%20selection. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “group selection,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/group%20selection.
Source: group selection on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.