Evolution at it's finest

     After sitting through 30 minutes of my mammalogy class, the topic of altruism surfaced.  As defined by dictionary.com, Altruism is: the unselfish concern for the quality of others. Hmm…

     In the animal world, altruism is selected against (according to Darwin’s principles of natural selection). An altruistic behavior is a behavior that allows one organism to put itself in danger or do something for another without receiving any benefit whatsoever. This is practically unheard of. A classic example is “altruism” in vampire bats. If one bat doesn’t receive a meal that evening, a fellow batty friend will share what he/she had gotten for a meal that night. But, in turn, that will be reciprocated, for if the previous batty friend who had shared goes without a meal, the one that was hungry before will share. Technically this is not a TRUE altruistic behavior because it can be defined as reciprocation. If the bat doesn’t reciprocate to the one who shared in the first place, he/she is dubbed as a “cheater.” Natural selection favors cheaters because they get something for nothing, but will ultimately be selected against seeing as these bats aren’t dim-witted; They will slowly ostracize him/her and refuse to administer help in future situations. This causes the bats to be reciprocative where it’s just come to the point where it is ‘expected’. There’s nothing selfless about that. Thus, science waves away the idea of altruism.

     True altruism is helping for nothing. A one time event. No reciprocity expected. This phenomenon has been noticed in Red Colobus monkeys. Order Primates (which is where Homo sapiens is categorized under), has seen futile attempts at trying to name behaviors altruistic, yet science always proves them false. It’s a matter of environment and personal well being, hell, exactly as Darwin said it, it’s survival of the fittest.

     Now here comes what has been on my mind all afternoon. How can we,Homo sapiens, that are characterized with all of the monkeys out there, have developed this altruistic trait? Yes, I have realized that we are much different than our furry ancestors, but our brains are so similar in proximal relativity to theirs. My only thought out explanation for this isemotion. As I’m trying not to be anthropomorphic, I can not say animals do or do not have emotion. But, after reading study after study, I have come to the own conclusion in my mind that they might carry some ability for compassion. There have been cases where Vervot Monkeys will give alarm calls putting themselves in danger to save others, but is that really selfless? Or are they just helping because it will improve their ‘indirect reproductive success’ by having surviving kin (kin selection)?

     Direct fitness + indirect fitness = Inclusive fitness. The goal in the animal world is to have the highest inclusive fitness possible. Altruism would lower the direct (or, I suppose, could be increasing indirect by saving a fellow kin, thus increasing his/her indirect reproductive success) fitness of the organism in question. And that, in turn, would drop the inclusive fitness causing this behavior to be selected against. As humans, we are the “fittest” there currently is but we also manage to be altruistic. Without reciprocity. I love doing nice things for people without expecting anything in return. There are people who would take a bullet for someone.. acquiring potential consequences without expecting a reward. Why has this trait evolved in us and selected against us, yet we still remain to be the ‘fittest’ out there?

     I think this is the one trait that completely sets us apart from any other organism. Our ability of concern, the empathy that allows us to be understanding, the passion we have with others, these are in comparison to the behaviors performed selflessly. Although, this is a decided trait. I suppose our ability to distinguish right from wrong and other ethics lets us make the decision to be altruistic. Martin Luther King Jr once said,“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” King was a smart guy so I’ll run with him on that. We have the power of decision. That power lets us give to the poor, take a bullet for someone, buy a meal for someone who forgot money, bake a cake for a random patient’s birthday in a hospital and other selfless events. We can feel emotion and have the ability to alter the emotions of others, for better or for worse. Maybe I’m looking into this too deep. Someone wouldn’t take a bullet for a random stranger, so why should the Red Colobus Monkeys give their alarm call for random, unknown monkeys? Without the theory of kin selection, these monkeys ARE altruistic (yikes, disagreeing with science). We just are on more of a personal level, no life or death situations on a normal day to day basis like the calls of the Red Colobus’s. But I DO have to agree with science that we are still the most altruistic organisms out there.

     So, again I ask: Why has this trait evolved in us and selected against us, yet we still remain to be the ‘fittest’ out there?