Ignorance of Payoff (IMAGE)

Washington University in St. Louis

Ignorance of Payoff

Caption

Strassmann and Queller say there are two types of veils of ignorance. One is ignorance of relatedness, but the second is ignorance of payoffs. The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum illustrates the second type of veil. Groups of amoebas join together to form fruiting bodies; amoebas that end up in the stalk of the fruiting body die and do not pass on their genes, but at the time they aggregate (above), the amoebas may be ignorant of their status relative to other amoebas and so of their likelihood of ending up in the stalk.

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Strassmann

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