Meaning of life-dinner principle | Babel Free

Definitions

A principle of asymmetry in selective pressure between predators and prey.

Examples

“The life-dinner principle (unequal selection pressures) ¶ ‘The rabbit runs faster than the fox, because the rabbit is running for his life while the fox is only running for his dinner’ (Dawkins 1979, after Aesop). There is a built in imbalance between predator and prey with respect⟳ to the penalty of failure. Mutations that make⟳ foxes lose⟳ races against rabbits might therefore survive⟳ in the fox gene pool longer than mutations that cause rabbits to lose⟳ races can expect⟳ to survive⟳ in the rabbit gene pool.”

“Dawkins and Krebs (1979) have⟳ suggested that, unless predators are rare (Dawkins, 1982), prey should evolve more quickly than their predators due to stronger selection on the prey. This has been termed the “life-dinner” principle […]”

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