An Explanation of Altruism in Primate Social Behavior
Altruism is one of the most mysterious social behaviors in the world. Altruism is defined as behavior that increases, on average, the reproductive fitness of others at the expense of the fitness of the altruist. Fitness simply means the expected number of offspring. When an organism gives up the advancement of its own fitness for the fitness advancement of another organism in the population, it seems somewhat illogical. However, from the articles I’ve read, survival of the fittest and natural selection, in reference to an entire species or population, is often dependent on the altruistic actions of others in a population. Another concept learned from studying journals regarding altruism is that altruistic behavior is far more complex than normally thought. Altruism can be traced throughout the evolution of many species, especially primates. It has been a focal point in the research of many natural scientists, anthropologists and biologists alike. The four articles I chose to analyze and explain altruism in the realm of primate social behavior were “A mechanism for social selection and successful altruism”, “Varieties of altruism - and the common ground between them”, “The pursuit of human nature in sociobiology and evolutionary
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Leonard Nunney, Herbert Simon, Alexandra Maryanski, , Robert Trivers, Nicholas Humphrey, William Hamilton, Unselfish Behavior, forms altruism, altruistic behavior, altruism occurs, reciprocal altruism, natural selection, primate societies, altruistic behavior primate, kin selected, altruism primate, distinct forms, survival fittest, kin selected altruism, Psychology Unselfish, Unto Evolution, behavior primate societies, pursuit human nature, predisposes carrier help,
Approximate Word count = 1739
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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