Editing Baldwin effect (section)

{{short description|Effect of learned behavior on evolution}}
{{about||the organic chemistry guidelines|Baldwin's rules|the astronomical phenomenon|Baldwin effect (astronomy)}}
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[[File:Lamarck Compared to Darwin, Baldwin, Waddington.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|The Baldwin effect compared to [[Lamarckism|Lamarck's theory of evolution]], [[Darwinian evolution]], and [[C. H. Waddington|Waddington]]'s [[genetic assimilation]]. All the theories offer explanations of how organisms respond to a changed environment with adaptive inherited change.]]
In [[evolutionary biology]], the '''Baldwin effect''' describes an effect of learned behaviour on evolution. [[James Mark Baldwin]] and others suggested that an organism's ''ability to learn'' new behaviours (e.g. to acclimatise to a new stressor) will affect its reproductive success and will therefore have an effect on the genetic makeup of its species through [[natural selection]]. It posits that subsequent selection might reinforce the originally learned behaviors, if adaptive, into more in-born, instinctive ones. Though this process appears similar to [[Lamarckism]], that view proposes that living things ''inherited'' their parents' acquired characteristics. The Baldwin effect only posits that learning ability, which is genetically based, is another variable in / contributor to environmental adaptation. First proposed during the [[Eclipse of Darwinism]] in the late 19th century, this effect has been independently proposed several times, and today it is generally recognized as part of the [[Modern synthesis (20th century)|modern synthesis]].