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| 79.1 - Fall 2005 | ||||||||||||
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Reconciling Benevolence and Darwin
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Printable Version |
By Benjamin Deen
Kindness in a Cruel World: The Evolution of Altruism
How can we rationalize the kindness of strangers in our allegedly vicious, Darwinian world? A lucid amalgam of research in biology, psychology, anthropology, and economics, Nigel Barber’s Kindness in a Cruel World: The Evolution of Altruism addresses this seemingly contradictory issue.
As Barber explains, an explicit empirical bias guides the study. “This book describes actions rather than philosophies.” Still, the book converges on one central thesis: altruism is no fragile cultural construction but rather a biological adaptation. Kindness evolved because it works—it promotes survival, and not merely for humans. Selflessness pervades the animal kingdom in voluntarily asexual bumblebees, nepotistic woodpeckers, and vampire bats that regurgitate food to strangers.
Those who love to glean factual tidbits will enjoy reading Barber’s book. His research is relevant though charmingly obscure. To explain how suffering within a group bolsters cohesion among its members, Barber describes the story of Richard Swanson. Swanson died “while attempting to swallow a quarter pound slab of raw liver” during a fraternity hazing at the University of Southern California. To illustrate the point that touch expresses trust—a crucial element to the development of altruism—Barber discusses the research of Tiffany Field. In her studies, Field observed that French youths spend 400% more time making physical contact with each other than Americans youths do.
Barber reveals the agent between social satisfaction and physical well-being as oxytocin, “the cuddling hormone.” In other documented examples of mind-body connections, pet owners have been observed to be four times less likely to die after cardiac surgery than are non-owners, while married white men are seven times less likely to contract cirrhosis than are unmarried men.
Unfortunately, Barber struggles in his overt goal to refute the common criticism that biology “defines altruism out of existence.” He insists that while empathy is a trait common to all humans, the emergence of such moral sentiments requires socialization, and thus external influence. However, he never addresses the relevant question of whether or not society in fact causes philanthropy.
Simplicity aside, Barber’s book will intrigue and occasionally incite the scientifically or ethically curious. Barber cheerfully debunks the moral relativist: “We can be as sure of [altruism’s] permanence as we are sure that the wild flowers will bloom next spring.”
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