24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Humans are the Giraffes of Altruism
Humans are the giraffes of altruism. We’re freaks of nature, able (at our best) to achieve antlike levels of service to the group. We readily join together to create superorganisms, but unlike the eusocial insects we do it with blatant disregard for kinship and we do it temporarily and contingent upon special circumstances (particularly intergroup conflict, as is found in war, sports, and business). [...] Having the term “contingent superorganism” in our cognitive toolkit may help peo...Jonathan Haidt explains our our proclivity to help one another makes us a kind of "superorganism."