RadioLab feature “The Good Show”, a one hour look in to the psychology of kindness. The standard view of evolution is that living things are shaped by cold-hearted competition. And there is no doubt that today’s plants and animals carry the genetic legacy of ancestors who fought fiercely to survive and reproduce.
In this hour, we wonder whether there might also be a logic behind sharing, niceness, kindness … or even, self-sacrifice. Is altruism an aberration, or just an elaborate guise for sneaky self-interest? Do we really live in a selfish, dog-eat-dog world? Or has evolution carved out a hidden code that rewards genuine cooperation?
In this episode, a question that haunted Charles Darwin: if natural selection boils down to survival of the fittest, how do you explain why one creature might stick its neck out for another?
Featuring Richard Dawkins, Robert Axelrod and Carl Zimmer it’s free to stream or download.
"
For my ethics homework i have to preform one altruistic good deed to a stranger. i still haven’t done mine yet as i’ve been ill but need to think of something to do soon as we are back at uni next week
I’m currently reading your book and you’ve just discussed this. There’s a good chapter on this area of thought in the Happiness Hypothesis as well.
Great book. Loving every page and don’t worry, I’m sure Hugh has forgiven you.
everyone takes the path of least resistance. it may not look like the least resistance to us, but it does to them.
I am for the theory that underneath our conscious thinking there lies a knowledge that we are in fact one family – we identify with this notion to an almost anti-selfish gene level.
when I see a policeman jump to save a drug addict trying to commit suicide and he says something along these lines it reinforces it…
wherever there is a disaster requiring an instant response it isn’t that heroes happen to be the ones standing nearby – among all those who shut off and clam up there are always some who have the instant cut through effect – and save a stranger at great risk to their own lives.
we are one.
Its rather wonderful.
Isn’t such cooperation covered by game theory?
So what is game theory?
We’re social animals, and have evolved around the premise that you can do more as a unit than as individuals. We’re still antagonistic between different groups
Game theory is basically applied mathematics, which is relevant to altruism because it talks partially about Evolutionarily Stable Strategies – strategies which, when they exist in the majority of the population, can’t be bettered in the long run by deviant individuals pursuing another strategy. So yes, such co-operation may well be covered by game theory. It’s a fascinating branch, worth reading more on – Wikipedia’s not bad on the subject, but Richard Dawkins’ ‘The Selfish Gene’ has an excellent chapter on game theory, as well as being a damned good read generally.
I would have to hypothesis that every action, guided in some way by Darwin & Dawkins, that every action undertaken by an individual is entirely selfish. We enter into contracts/negotiations etc (even if concluded in nanoseconds) with ourselves or exterior forces and the resultant justification (which Derren Predicts with pinpoint accuracy) is the resultant outcome.
Survival of the species etc, a lot of human actions are dictated by our base genetic code of survival of the fittest – we want the most healthy female (beauty is in the eye of the beholder; where beauty = ability to reproduce) to carry on our genes and assist. Where females seek the most virile & dominant male. This is basic evolution. All flight/fight responses are simply the result of our own interrepation in the ultimate out