Baldwin effect

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Baldwin effect The idea that phenotypic plasticity is a crucial element for the operation of natural selection. In the 1950s, some blue tits in Britain learned to peck away the caps of milk bottles and drink some of the milk. Those capable of learning this were strongly advantaged; in each generation, those which were more and more focused on milk-bottle-opening were selected for, so that a mere ‘capacity to learn’ became a ‘drive to open milk bottles’.

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