From: Dani Eder (danielravennest@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon May 15 2006 - 18:04:48 MDT
>
> Can you give a reasonable account of how "emotion
> compassion" other than
> that directed to relatives would have improved
> reproductive success enough
> for the genes building brain structures for it to
> become common?
>
Among groups of male chimanzees, who generally
stay together for life, it has been found that their
genetic relatedness is not significantly higher
within a group than between groups. In other words
they don't hang out with relatives much.
Note this is not true for females.
Assuming the grouping of males confers an evolutionary
advantage (else why would they do it?), and
the lifetime association, then helping out your
buddies and being helped in return (compassion)
within the group would confer enough advantage
to be selected for.
DRN
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