Altruism and Identity

Abstract

This paper reviews some of the major approaches to the evolution of altruism and cooperation, addressing the question of how fitness reducing behaviors could evolve and become fixed in a population. An often overlooked important point is that human psychology must be taken into account, in particular the way that personal identity is tied to adherence to social and cultural norms and approved behaviors resulting in an identification of personal biological survival with a social group and the markers of that group.