Synonyms
Definition
when an organism behaves in ways that produce benefits for others with a cost for himself.
Introduction
Evolution is based in adaptive value traits that prevail (reproduce) in a limited-resource environment. Thus, fierce competition should be inevitable. Paradoxically, altruistic acts are widespread in nature and an organizing principle in human societies (Nowak 2006). Hamilton (1963) described the evolution of altruistic behavior as a stable strategy in kinship relations, pointing that such acts are costly to the individual but beneficial to his genes, therefore being a fitness-enhancing strategy. However, cooperative acts are also observed among non-kin, in one-shot interactions (Boyd et al. 2003; Fehr and Gächter 2002; Gächter et al. 2008), and in highly diverse societies (Henrich et al. 2006). When fitness is measured in terms of genetic combined to cultural reproduction, new beneficial forms of altruistic acts can...
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Vasconcelos, I.G. (2020). Altruism. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1475-1
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