this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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Humans are literally the most co-operative animals alive, which is why as a species we have been so successful. The unique advantage humans have over other animals has been our hyper-cooperativity.
Humans regularly will make decisions which are costly to them individually, but which benefit a larger group. This is reinforced through cultural norms as well.
The modern era has been a bit of a deviation from the norm of humanity co-operating to advance our civilisation. I’m sure that we will correct for our mistake soon.
Pretty sure humans are not the most co-operative animals alive.
Bees and ants exist, you know
Humans are more co-operative than bees and ants. Bees and ants are very co-operative, sure, but they only co-operate within their own colonies. By contrast, humans will co-operate with complete strangers with which they have nothing in common other than their shared humanity. Humans will help other humans who they have never met before, will never meet again, share no common language with, basically any number of differences you can throw in there, humans will still co-operate. When it comes to the scope, scale and sophistication of co-operation, no other animal comes close to humans.
There is also still a competitive instinct in humans, for sure, but the drive to co-operate is almost always stronger than the competitive urge. This is why all of our sports have rules, why we have laws to prevent unfair competition, and why we consider selfishness to be a negative trait.