The Social Instinct

Why do we cooperate? To a highly cooperative species like ourselves, it might seem obvious that we do, but from a rational perspective, individuals benefit more from pursuing their own narrow interests. To answer this question, this book takes a step back, or rather a few million steps, evolutionarily speaking. From the level of the cell to that of complex societies, it examines cooperation as a driving force in nature, allowing us to see ourselves as part of a much bigger story.

All socially living creatures must cooperate; indeed, cooperation is a basic principle of evolution and occurs even between cells. In this book, Nichola Raihani describes the evolution of cooperative behavior over the entire tree of life, from cells to social insects to group-living birds and mammals to humans. With many examples, this tour de force is nevertheless so exciting that one does not want to put the book down. One learns a lot about when cooperation arises, what conditions must be present for cooperative behavior to remain stable, and when cooperation can also break down. At a time when worldwide… show more.