Williams' Rule and Its Relevance for Positive Change Efforts

Abstract

Nearly every individual and society seeks to work toward positive change, but these efforts often perversely result in dysfunctional outcomes, especially when different aspirations collide with each other. This is also true in nature, where adaptations that evolve by natural selection do not necessarily result in well-functioning animal societies and multispecies communities. A classic book on this subject is Adaptation and Natural Selection, published by George C. Williams in 1966. Williams forcefully asserted that adaptation at any level of a multitier hierarchy of units (e.g., individuals, single species social groups, or multispecies ecosystems) requires a process of selection at the same level and tends to be undermined by selection at lower levels. This can be called Williams’ Rule. While Williams’ Rule is widely appreciated by evolutionary biologists, it is little known in other topic domains, such as the human-related academic disciplines and pragmatic efforts to accomplish positive change. The purpose of this article is to make Williams’ Rule more widely known, which can improve any positive change effort, no matter what topic domain or scale.