On the Genetics of Altruism and the Counter‐Hedonic Components in Human Culture1

Abstract

Man is more similar to the social insects than to the wolf and chimpanzee in complex social coordination, division of labor, and self‐sacrificial altruism. In the social insects, the behavioral dispositions involved are genetically determined, an evolution made possible by the absence of genetic competition among the cooperators. In man, genetic competition precludes the evolution of such genetic altruism. The behavioral dispositions which produce complex social interdependence and self‐sacrificial altruism must instead be products of culturally evolved indoctrination, which has had to counter self‐serving genetic tendencies. Thus unlike the social insect, man — as Freud noted — is profoundly ambivalent in his social role.

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