If I asked you to imagine what evolutionary biologists have to say about human nature, the phrases ‘selfish gene’, ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘red in tooth and claw’ might spring to mind. Perhaps you would imagine explanations for why human history is a catalogue of war, conquest and strife. We are greedy and violent, because the greediest and most violent ancestors triumphed. We must overcome our biology in order to coexist.
Not quite, says David Sloan Wilson, Distinguished Professor of Biological sciences and anthropology at Binghamton University in New York state. ‘It’s impossible to explain society only in terms of self-interest, because we are undeniably a co-operative species,’ he says. ‘We are the only primate super-organism.’
