Does it pay to be good? Competing evolutionary explanations of pro-social behaviour

Abstract

Our brain makes us behave. If we want to understand why we have the brains that we have, we need to figure out how we benefit from the behaviour it induces. Insofar as our brain is moral, the natural evolutionary question is then how behaving morally promotes our survival and procreation. Does it pay to be good? Doesn't it pay more to be bad? This question seems to preoccupy many of us already in everyday life. It has inspired many writers to produce novels and film scripts that revolve around the question whether or not the bad guy gets a taste of his own medicine. The imminent tragic downfall of a good man - while the villain seems to get away with whatever evil he is up to - makes us hope for a few twists and turns that make everyone get what they deserve. These exciting ingredients are not always processed with subtlety and realism, but even in books and films that appeal to our sense of tragedy through a bad ending, there is the same tension. Recently scientists also tried to answer the question whether or not it pays to be good - which is exciting too, but in a different way - and they have produced a considerable amount of studies in doing so. In this chapter I will describe some of those evolutionary models and try to indicate how close we are to an answer.