Survival of the Kindest

www.berkeley.edu...

Social scientists build case for 'survival of the kindest'

By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | 08 December 2009

BERKELEY — Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.

In contrast to "every man for himself" interpretations of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist and author of "Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life," and his fellow social scientists are building the case that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our nurturing, altruistic and compassionate traits.

They call it "survival of the kindest."

"Because of our very vulnerable offspring, the fundamental task for human survival and gene replication is to take care of others," said Keltner, co-director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. "Human beings have survived as a species because we have evolved the capacities to care for those in need and to cooperate. As Darwin long ago surmised, sympathy is our strongest instinct.”

Most of the scientific studies I've read about (sociological/anthropological/psychological/etc.) show that humans are actually more predisposed to empathy, altruism, and compassion rather than selfishness, competition, and aggression. Of course, we are capable of the full range of feelings and actions, we are also very cultural creatures as well; nature sometimes butts heads with nurture (or lack thereof) in a way that creates conflicts between human needs for belonging and love and societal needs for solitary competition. It is my contention that we are a**-backwards, out of balance, and disconnected regarding many of these personal needs/drives. Science may show that at least a decent chunk of many peoples' social unhappiness may stem from the atomized, anonymous, disposable, highly competitive and superficially conformist state of society we live within. It's interesting to read about so-called "primitive" tribal societies and how well they are adapted to human needs, lacking many of the neuroses and pathologies of "modern" society at least in degree and probably in average incidence.

I agree with your post entirely.....until TSHTF.

Thats the thing about human nature, whilst everythings ok, we can be the nicest people on earth.

Just watch people's "kind gestures" next time the food shops run low on stock.

Ok there are few exceptions to the rule, but the majority of people adopt the "screw you" attitude very quickly when things go pearshaped.

CX.

Originally posted by CX
I agree with your post entirely.....until TSHTF.

Thats the thing about human nature, whilst everythings ok, we can be the nicest people on earth.

Just watch people's "kind gestures" next time the food shops run low on stock.

Ok there are few exceptions to the rule, but the majority of people adopt the "screw you" attitude very quickly when things go pearshaped.

CX.

Of course in times of intense fear, scarcity, and insecurity, people will become more selfish, violent/aggressive, and erratic. However, there are also many cases of people STILL maintaining impressive semblances of compassion, community, love, care, and all those fluffy things in even the direst circumstances. It seems the polar extremes of either intense scarcity or intense excess/temptation (or in combination, especially) will produce some very selfish results (understandably). It's good that the science seems to show that the default for humans is to be mostly altruistic/compassionate. I mean, think about it, if we really were more selfish than cooperative, the world would be a helluva lot worse than it is (and I know, that's hard to imagine ).

I have read a recent theory common to this.

The marked difference between tribalization and civilization is the discovery of alcohol. It is pretty much universally acknowledged that the discovery of alcohol is the fundamental building block that allowed civilization to occur. The rise of every civilization happens to coincide with either the discovery of alcohol, or the trading with another civilization for alcohol.

Although the basis of alcohol as a method to provide stability to the food-supply during winter is often the primary reason this attribution is made, another argument could be made for the community promoting effects of moderate alcohol consumption upon the brain.

A moderate blood-alcohol level of 0.03 to 0.12% will generate relaxation, improve mood overall (sometimes to the state of euphoria) , increase self-confidence, but more importantly increase sociability and make one more agreeable to suggestions other than their own (ergo, the ability to cooperatively work towards a greater good rather than for themselves).

Although we would like to think that nurturing, altruistic, and compassionate traits are inherent to the human condition, they are only really psychologically inherent in regards to our immediate family or tribe. It very well could be that the ability to extend these traits of compassion outside our immediate circle to which we self-identify is entirely due to the effects of alcohol throughout the past tens of millennia which has helped us become more social and cooperative than our more primal ancestors.