Does Altruism Contradict Evolutionary Theory?

Evolutionary theory, the idea that life has developed through modification and adaptation on earlier forms suggests that through natural selection, the process by which successful adaptations will be transferred from one generation to the next while unsuccessful ones will not, this ” altruistic ” behaviour should have been replaced by more adaptive behaviour.

Although altruism, the unselfish concern of an individual for the welfare of another seems to contradict evolutionary theory and natural selection, it has been suggested that actually it may be a mechanism developed to increase one ” s reproductive success.

In terms of evolution, reproductive success or fitness is viewed as the ability of the individual to pass on his/her genes onto the next generation thereby ensuring their survival in the gene pool. William Hamilton suggested that altruism actually might be advantageous if the behaviour was directed at individuals that were sharing a large proportion of the their genes, therefore still increasing the likelihood of reproductive success.

Any two members of the same species share up to 90% of their genes, however close relatives, brothers for example, can share up to 50% of their genes above this threshold. So an altruistic act aimed at close relatives could be designed to maximise reproductive success within the family gene pool. This kind of behaviour favoured towards family members is known as kin selection.

When viewed from the perspective of the ” gene ” , this type of behaviour no longer seems selfless, but rather can be seen as a kind of ” gene selfishness ” . For example, if a Brother runs into a burning building to save the lives of his parents and little sister and is killed in the process, he has sacrificed 100% of his own genes but saved one and a half times his genetic make-up through the well-being of his family, i.e. 50% of his genes from each relative. As the distance of relation decreases so does the likelihood of genetic similarities and so more individuals would need to be saved in order to make the altruistic behaviour advantageous. Which is why in everyday life we commonly see altruistic behaviour directed towards close relatives, parents, brothers, children etc. “ What is at stake is not the survival of individual organisms but the survival of the genes carried by those organisms ” .

It can ” t be expected that individuals during times of emergency are making complicated calculations on genetic make-up, but as a sportsman might make seemingly numerable split-second calculations, so is some unconscious process being evoked during altruistic acts.