The Synergy of Cooperation Cooperation occurs when two or more individuals behave in a coordinated fashion to the gain of the parti– cipants.
Nature is replete with cooperating individuals, both members of the same and of different species.
Ants defend aphids, who provide them with sweet droplets of honeydew from their rear ends.
Cleaner fish pluck parasites from predatory fish that could swallow them in an instant, but do not do so because a colleague is better than a cutthroat.
Juvenile birds remain at the nest to help in the rearing of their parents’ subsequent broods.
How selfish genes translate into unselfish organisms has been a central question of modern biology.
In the “survival of the fittest” view of the world, individuals are merely gene–making machines, and every behavior is ultimately in the individual’s self–interest.
Scientists have developed two widely accepted explanations for the cooperative and selfless behavior commonly shown by animals (human included).
The first theory, known as kin selection, was set forth in a 1964 paper by British evolutionary biologist William Hamilton.
By helping close genetic relatives, one is indirectly investing in one’s own genes.
The most prominent example is the care and pro– tection of young.
Many studies have shown that individuals will sacrifice immediate selfinterests to benefit close relatives.
But there are myriad examples of animals acting compassionately toward others who are not kin — in some cases they are not even of the same species.
That’s where the second theory, reciprocal altruism, comes in.
Devel– oped by the American evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers in 1971, reciprocal altruism refers to the exchange of a favor now for the prospects of a returned favor later.
Readers should note that reciprocal altruism depends on individuals’ ⒜ doing favors to one another, ⒝ remembering the favor later on, and ⒞ recognizing the individual who did the favor.
Reciprocal altruists have minds, and feelings.