Competition or collaboration?
Charles Darwin’s theory established, among others, the concept of la as the principle of the evolution of species: in the face of adverse environmental conditions for organisms, a struggle for survival is established between them, in which only the most adapted survive.
Ethology, the discipline on which Darwin relied when making his observations, studies nature to establish relationships between different species, and thus better understand human functioning and behavior.
However, there are some biological differences between humans and other living beings. By adapting to the bipedal gait, for example, the human species developed a narrower pelvic canal. So that the size of the skull of the fetus was not disproportionate in relation to the female pelvis, the calf had to be born more immature. What led to a series of modifications in the (division of tasks, parental care,…), which generated a social environment, where collaboration between clan members became essential for the survival of the infant.
Unlike the rest of the animals, the human being finishes maturing after his birth. This results in social learning where the relationship with their environment ends up structuring their neural functions. Therefore, as a result of the interaction with the environment, during the first months of life it experiences a greater development of both the limbic brain and the neo-cortex, giving it greater social and cooperation skills and allowing it, in turn, to carry out more complex mental operations to survive.
According to the Doctor of Medicine and researcher in molecular biology, in one of La Vanguardia in 2015:
There are two survival mechanisms: growth and protection, and both cannot operate at the same time. Either you grow or you protect yourself. Growth processes require a free exchange of information with the environment, protection requires complete shutdown of the system. A sustained protective response inhibits the production of energy necessary for life.
The human being is by nature. The interaction between the different members of the communities, societies,… promotes the exchange of information that makes individual and species growth possible. It happens in the same way in nature: the most fertile land is the one that harbors the greatest biodiversity. The greater the exchange of information, the greater the chances and therefore also the chances of survival.
The evolution of the human being implies its social adaptation: the human being is altruistic by nature.
An investigation by Evolutionary Anthropology from Leipzig shows how 18-month-old children spontaneously help adults when they find that they are not resolving a situation. These are babies who are still in diapers and who are in the pre-linguistic stage, that is, they still do not express themselves with words.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute and professor from the Department of Psychology at Harvard University presented the study “” in which they demonstrated evidence of altruistic behavior in young children.
For the study, various scenarios were raised in which an adult clearly needs help to resolve a situation. Babies react by helping people they don’t know spontaneously without receiving a command or expecting a reward.
In the example you can see how Warneken is hanging clothes on a rope and a clothespin falls off. He tries to catch up with her but doesn’t make it. The child reacts almost immediately to fix the situation. In most cases children react in less than 10 seconds without waiting for eye contact with the adult. At no time were the children directly asked for help or rewarded for their collaboration.
Warneken points out: “In another part of the test I deliberately dropped the clamp on the ground and it wouldn’t be picked up. They only gave it to me when they saw that I needed the clothespin to complete my objective, in this case, hanging the clothes”.
The situation of hanging clothes on a rope can be somewhat familiar to babies, so other, less recognizable scenarios were also tested: “One of them was a box with a lid to retrieve objects inside the box.” Warneken accidentally drops a spoon into it and pretends that he doesn’t know how to access it. Once again, the children would only help Warneken retrieve the spoon if he was struggling to do so, unlike when Warneken deliberately dropped the spoon into him.
Making a certain effort to help someone, without any benefit to yourself, is called . Until now, only human beings have been shown to be altruistic. Another parallel study shows that they also have collaborative behaviors without reward, although to a lesser extent, and they clearly cooperate when it comes to getting food.
According to the physicist we live in a participatory Universe.
Just as the organism itself works together and in unison to guarantee our survival, we human beings are part of a whole to which we constantly contribute to ensure the survival of the species. The same evolution is the result of the collaboration between micro-organisms to adapt to the environment and, later, between individuals and communities.
When we collaborate with others, we maintain a relationship of and help each other without expecting recognition, there is no selfishness. We move away from individuality, we return to , to . Through pure altruism arises the one that allows us to evolve together.
“In the long history of humanity, those who have learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
Darwin, Charles.