The idea that adaptations in organisms result from "group selection" (selection among groups that differentially bud off subgroups, with those having good "group traits" becoming more numerous), rather than from selection among genes themselves, usually within individuals, has undergone a bit of resurgence in popular culture. This is in stark contrast to the views of most evolutionary biologists, who see group selection as a logical possibility, but one that doesn’t easily work in theoretical models and, more important, has explained almost nothing about nature. In contrast, the gene-centered view of evolution worked out by biologists like W. D. Hamilton, Robert Trivers, and John Maynard Smith, and popularized by Richard Dawkins, has been immensely fruitful.
MORE: http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/the-demise-of-group-selection/
