"If you lived in a group where everyone was very helpful to each other, behaved altruistically, and your group could then dominate other groups, then those altruistic tendencies would increase in frequency and the number of groups displaying those capacities would increase".
But even today, there is great individual and cultural variation to how altruistically minded we are, and some controversial theories have put this down to our genes.
In line with the halo associated with green consumerism, people act more altruistically after mere exposure to green than conventional products.
However, people act less altruistically and are more likely to cheat and steal after purchasing green products as opposed to conventional products.
But, in traumatising the surviving burglar to the extent that he can no longer pursue his trade, he has acted altruistically.
In the likely event of regime change in Iraq, and a lifting of sanctions, America will have acted altruistically in favour of, among others, TotalFinaElf and French drivers.Alternatively, if a farmer in England defends his home with a shotgun, he goes to jail.
Whereas trackers "altruistically" sacrificed their energy to keep the population growing, foragers maximised their energy and bred opportunistically when the trackers ran out of sexual steam.
These creatures all have large brains, complex social systems and occasionally behave altruistically towards distant relatives, strangers or even individuals of other species.
Letters are welcome via e-mail to [email protected] air in TexasSIR – You made it sound as though the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to take over Texas's air-quality permitting system was done altruistically, to right some environmental wrong ("Breathing room", September 8th).
By his reasoning, the emergence of eusocial animals such as ants (and, arguably, humans) could be attributed to a genetic predisposition to act altruistically toward even unrelated conspecifics and to act in concert with one group against another group.
What later became known as Hamilton's rule predicted the conditions by which one individual would likely behave altruistically toward another.
