DAVIS, Calif., Oct 14, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Altruistic behavior,
self-sacrifice among strangers has more to do with nurture than nature, or
culture more than genes, U.S. researchers suggest.
Adrian V. Bell and colleagues of the University of California, Davis, say
behaviors that help unrelated people while being costly to the individual and
creating a risk for genetic descendants could not likely be favored by evolution
-- at least by common evolutionary arguments.
The researchers used a mathematical equation -- the Price equation -- that
describes the conditions for altruism to evolve. This equation motivated the
researchers to compare the genetic and the cultural differentiation between
neighboring social groups.
Using previously calculated estimates of genetic differences, they used the
World Values Survey -- questions are likely to be heavily influenced by culture
in a large number of countries -- as a source of data to compute the cultural
differentiation between the same neighboring groups.
The researchers found that the role of culture had a much greater scope for
explaining pro-social behavior than genetics.
The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
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