How Do Behavioral Ecologists Explain Altruism?
Altruistic behavior is easily understood when the behavior is obviously cooperative or reciprocal, and all the cooperating members share in the benefits, such as pack hunting in wolfs and lions. However, altruistic behavior that imposes a cost to an individual and how such behavior might be favored by natural selection has long perplexed evolutionary biologist. If altruism imposes a cost or negative consequence to an individual, how can it be favored by natural selection? A number of explanations have been put forth to explain the evolution of true altruism. One popular suggestion is that such traits evolve for the overall good of the species. The problem with this explanation is that natural selection operates on the individual level and not on the species level. document.getElementById(‘adsense_placeholder_2’).innerHTML = document.getElementById(‘adsense_ad_2_hidden’).innerHTML; Another possibility is that what may seem to be altruistic acts are not true altruistic behavior after all
