David P. Barash’s “The Ugly Underside of Altruism” (The Review, June 29) shows how evolutionary psychology has recently become more sophisticated. While Barash is more careful than most, his article ...

A controversial idea in evolutionary biology argues that genes—not individuals or species—are the true drivers of natural ...

Altruism (helping others at a cost to oneself) may evolve via group selection if the cost of altruism to the individual is compensated for by growth differences among groups when (1) there is high ...

Why do we help others, even when it costs us something? This question has fascinated scientists for decades. A new study from the University of Amsterdam offers a breakthrough answer by updating one ...

Have you ever acted kindly when you really didn’t want to? And if you forced yourself to anyway, was it merely because you thought you should? That you’d feel guilty or ashamed if you didn’t act, or ...

The evolutionary origins of morals in humans has been a concern of scientists since Darwin. As Boehm, director of the Jane Goodall Research Center and professor of anthropology and biology at the ...

*Refers to the latest 2 years of stltoday.com stories. Cancel anytime. There is an interesting article in today's Boston Globe, Mathematics and faith explain altruism. Many religious believers hold up ...

Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness showed how natural selection could lead to behaviors that decrease the relative fitness of the actor and also either benefit (altruism) or harm (spite) other ...

Earlier today, I stumbled upon a memory of Steven Pinker’s account of altruism in his seminal book “How the mind works” as I ...