From one of the Internet's tiny treasure's, Delancey Place:
The Darwinian Basis For Altruism
Today's encore selection -- from The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. The Darwinian basis for altruism:
"I have mentioned kinship and reciprocation as the twin pillars of altruism in a Darwinian world, but there are secondary structures which rest atop those main pillars. Especially in human society, with language and gossip, reputation is important. One individual may have a reputation for kindness and generosity. Another individual may have a reputation for unreliability, for cheating and reneging on deals. Another may have a reputation for generosity when trust has been built up, but for ruthless punishment of cheating. The unadorned theory of reciprocal altruism expects animals of any species to base their behaviour upon unconscious responsiveness to such traits in their fellows. In human societies we add the power of language to spread reputations, usually in the form of gossip.
You don't need to have suffered personally from X's failure to buy his round at the pub. You hear 'on the grapevine' that X is a tightwad, or -- to add an ironic complication to the example -- that Y is a terrible gossip. Reputation is important, and biologists can acknowledge a Darwinian survival value in not just being a good reciprocator but fostering a reputation as a good reciprocator too. Matt Ridley's The Origins of Virtue, as well as being a lucid account of the whole field of Darwinian morality, is especially good on reputation....
....MUCH MORE
Previously:
Psychopathy to Altruism: Neurobiology of the Selfish–Selfless Spectrum
"Altruistic People Have More Sexual Partners"Possible fāke™ news alert!
This site, Scientific American, has a history of propagating claims that have no basis in fact:
the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced."
"... too far-fetched to be considered."Editor of Scientific American, in a letter to Robert Goddard about
Goddard's idea of a rocket-accelerated airplane bomb, 1940
(German V2 missiles came down on London 3 years later).
With that warning we proceed to Scientific American:
We are drawn to those who do good deeds...
"How scientists taught monkeys the concept of money. Not long after, the first prostitute monkey appeared"Prudent Bet Sizing And The Best Quote About FTX, Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison (to date)
