====== Social Behavior ======

This section in the Wiki analyzes social behavior.  Although other organisms are social, we humans are uniquely social, living in large groups of distantly-related yet cooperating individuals, and in our reliance on culture for survival.  Theories of [[cultural_evolution]] are the extension of evolutionary theory to cultural change.  Since our capacity for culture evolved genetically, and genetic evolution has not stopped, genetic and cultural evolution operate simultaneously, demanding a theory of [[coevolution]].

Of course, the main advantage in living in a social group is the opportunity for [[cooperation]].  Traditionally this is regarded as so obvious as to often go unstated.  A controversial aspect of evolutionary theory as applied to culture is its use to explain and predict various forms of [[social_conflict | conflict]] (failure to cooperate.)  We do not see this viewpoint as in any way undermining the virtue or predominance of cooperation; what we do see is a subtle argument that the maintenance of cooperation is more difficult than often supposed, and that numerous aspects both of human instinct and culture work together to make this cooperation possible.

{{tag>social behavior rough}}