The Misunderstanding of Reciprocal Altruism by the Society

The public has always had a bad taste in its mouth about evolution. There are many people who dismiss it as bogus, stating that there is no proof behind it; that evolution is made up by atheist scientists who want to ruin religion. This is not true though; there are many religious people who believe evolution. That is just one of the many misunderstandings of evolution. The public needs to know that evolution has been one of the most intensely studied branches of science today.

There is overwhelming evidence showing its existence. However, there are still many naysayers of evolution, which all can be countered with documented scientific evidence. The misunderstanding that I will be covering is reciprocal altruism. I will discuss how it works in a Darwinian perspective, misunderstandings by the public, counters to such misunderstandings and why it is important in the first place. Reciprocal altruism is when one individual of a species, gives up his or her resources for the benefit of another individual.

This could include sharing food or other resources valuable to life, wasting their time to provide help for another individual, and possibly even dying to save the life of another individual. Those who argue against evolution state that reciprocal altruism is a paradox, that it decreases the fitness of an animal, so therefore cannot be natural selection. Those who exhibited these traits would not survive so they cannot pass on their traits. In addition, the individual receiving the altruism may not reciprocate back, thus allowing one individual to thrive while the other is cheated.

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I, being thoroughly trained in the field of natural selection, would counter these claims with scientific fact. Reciprocal altruism works on a tit-for-tat basis. If both individuals work together, then the total award for both is greater than the award for only one party committing to the altruism. Therefore, it is advantageous for both parties to work together. Examples of individuals working together may include birds and prairie dogs alerting others in danger of a predator. This possibly lowers their fitness as they may be killed in the process, but in doing so, saving the others. If a prairie dog did nothing, it may be able to save itself, but allowing many others to die instead (including potential mates). If it did alert others, the entire population may live. It makes the most sense to always alert the others as the benefits are greater for both parties. If there is a prairie dog that alerts others and still survives, he may survive next time because another prairie dog sent out a warning call. Simply put, altruism promotes cooperation between individuals, to increase the fitness of the entire species. This is how reciprocal altruism was selected for. Despite the fact that it momentarily lowers the fitness of an individual, the payoff itself is greater, allowing those who elicited altruistic traits to survive to pass on the altruistic traits.

Putting this phenomenon in an evolutionary perspective allows us to explain a paradox within evolution. A theory is only as strong as its weakest point; so it is important to be able to defend all aspects of a theory. Even with the abundance of evidence showing its existence, evolution remains a theory, possibly just to keep those non-believers happy. Even though evolution is a “theory” it is widely accepted within the scientific community. The fact of the matter is, the public needs to know the truth about evolution. The fallacy of the opposition has held back the scientific community for too long, and is always trying to disprove evolution. If we were to finally take hold of the situation, we would be able to implement more scientific research that uses evolution as a cause. There are many advantages of this. We would be able to scientifically prove more things than we have ever before. If current scientists could spend less time arguing with skeptics, they could actually be making useful discoveries now. All in all, the theory of evolution needs to be publically accepted once and for all.

There are many misunderstandings about evolution that the public sees. However, it would be best to show them in a scientific way, what evolution is. Evolution does not deny the fact that there may be a God, but many believe that believing in evolution is the same as forsaking God. These misunderstandings need to be brought to justice and allow for us as a whole to work together for future scientific discoveries.