Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees: The Nature of Cooperation in Animals and Humans

Here biologist Lee Dugatkin outlines four paths to cooperation shared by humans and other animals: family dynamics, reciprocal transactions (or "tit for tat"), so-called selfish teamwork, and group altruism. He draws on a wealth of examples--from babysitting among mongooses and food sharing among vampire bats to cooperation in Hutterite communities and on kibbutzim--to show not only that cooperation exists throughout the animal kingdom, but how an understanding of the natural history of altruism might foster our own best instincts toward our fellow humans.