Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees: The Nature Of Cooperation In Animals and Humans

The author ventures into the animal and insect realms to show how observing what comes naturally to non-humans can teach us about our own instincts and the complicated web that is human society

Evolutionary biologist Dugatkin (Cooperation Among Animals) is unabashed in his belief that "the study of evolution and animal behavior can be used to foster and enhance cooperation in humans." Without resorting to simple minded biological determinism, he argues forcefully that the behavioral predisposition of humans may be predicted by evolution. Thus, he asserts that research in animal behavior can provide baseline information about parallel behavior in (admittedly more complex) humanity. Such investigations may ultimately help us better understand the underpinnings of human behavior and allow us to restructure our environments to promote more cooperation. Dugatkin explains that cooperation arises through four pathways, "family dynamics, reciprocal transactions, selfish teamwork, and group altruism." He devotes one chapter to each pathway, clearly explaining the underlying evolutionary theory and providing myriad animal examples. His fascinating instances range widely from vampire bats willing to regurgitate blood for starving neighbors to mongooses who take turns baby-sitting. Each chapter concludes with an attempt to tie the lessons learned from animals to suggestions for public policy issues as diverse as class size in elementary schools and partnering in police departments. These applications, however, are the weakest part of an otherwise startling and eye-opening glimpse into the evolution of behavior.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Can the study of cooperation in animals facilitate human sociability, asks evolutionary biologist Dugatkin? Yes, he concludesafter a run through evidence from the animal kingdomthough exactly how remains unclear Dugatkin suggests to readers that animals have something to tell us about the nature of cooperation; their actions can serve as a baseline, he adds, since they have no morality. We can study their raw behavior and apply an ethical framework to the findings to better shape our own cooperative acts. He then spends most of the book discussing four types of animal cooperation: family dynamics, reciprocal transactions, mutual teamwork, and universal altruism. Hermaphroditic fish, for example, divide up the reproductive chores, and vampire bats vomit blood meals to feed unrelated nest mates. But little discussion is devoted to how these acts play out when applied to the human condition. Can they prod us toward Lockean nobility, help us avoid Hobbesian entropy? Can they fix the Golden Rule in our everyday actions or blunt our reputation as ``remarkable scorekeepers (we know who did what to us and when'')? Dugatkin believes they can, if we ``turn them into guides . . . by focusing moral will on those areas.'' The problem is that he never defines his notion of ``moral will,'' which can mean a whole lot of things to a whole lot of people. And Dugatkin concludes with a statement that is so dismissive of his animal subjects, one has to wonder why he uses them as potentially illuminating and positive examples of behavior: ``I believe that the worth of animals does indeed lie in their relationship to humans. Inherently, other species are not important.'' Maybe its better that Dugatkin doesn't define ``moral will'' after all. He may be an expert in animal behavior, but hes clearly not a moral philosopher. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.