Competitive altruism: a theory of reputation-based cooperation in groups

Abstract

Abstract This article talks about altruism and morality. It defines altruism in terms of a design to benefit others at a cost to oneself, altruism is defined in terms of a motivation to help. It is often assumed that this motivation is conscious, although this is by no means necessary. Research suggests that humans are often not aware of why they behave as they do. Moral altruism is defined as a design to reward altruists and punish non-altruists. Moral altruists go one step further. Humans are unique in their propensity to cooperate with non-relatives, sometimes in very large groups. In other ultrasocial species, like the social insects, highly cooperative societies are based exclusively on kinship. Kin helping accounts for a substantial part of altruism in human society today.