Paper: Evolution Favors Cooperation Over Selfishness

Beeftopia writes "Conventional wisdom has suggested selfishness is most beneficial evolutionary strategy for humans, while cooperation is suboptimal. This dovetailed with a political undercurrent dating back more than a century, starting with social Darwinism. A new paper in the journal Nature Communications casts doubt on this school of thought. The paper shows that while selfishness is optimal in the short term, it fails in the long term. Cooperation is seen as the most effective long term human evolutionary strategy."

Re:The Repubs won't care, though....

[hedwards]

Fortunately, they also oppose sex, so they should die out before too long.

On not being selfish..

[djupedal]

Eskimo says - I loan out my knife....it comes back dull. I loan out my dog...he comes back tired and hungry. I loan out my canoe, it comes back broken. I loan out my wife...she comes back happy.

Re:Cooperation wins big time.

[cascadingstylesheet]

No, the radio is one of the most deadly innovations because it facilitates coordination. Coordinating 5 people can result in far more damage than hundreds cooperating, assuming the right tactics.

You win the most pedantic comment of the year award!

No, I win the most didactic comment of the year award.