Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-ckgrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-16T05:23:56.383Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The Altruistic Animal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2018

Steve Stewart-Williams
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Get access

Summary

One of the great challenges for evolutionary biology has been to explain the existence of altruism: behaviour that benefits the recipient at a cost to the altruist. Altruism is a puzzle because, at least at first glance, evolutionary theory seems to imply that the organisms that do best will be those that look after number one. Yet for all the undeniable selfishness in nature, altruism is remarkably common. How did it evolve? In this chapter, I look at the four main theories that evolutionary psychologists have proposed to answer this question. The first is kin selection: the idea that altruism toward kin involves genes “reaching out” and looking after copies of themselves in other bodies. The second is reciprocal altruism: the idea that humans evolved to exchange favours. The third is sexual selection: the idea that altruism is a human equivalent of the peacock’s tail. And the fourth is group selection: the idea that altruism was selected because groups of altruists do better than groups of non-altruists, even when altruistic individuals do worse. After discussing the relative merits of each theory, I ask: Does an evolutionary account of our altruistic inclinations imply that, deep-down, altruism is merely disguised self-interest?
Type
Chapter
Information
The Ape that Understood the Universe
How the Mind and Culture Evolve
, pp. 174 - 218
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×