The Upside of Human Nature

When asking the question "are humans cracked up for democracy?" at least part of the answer has to be, well, yes. After all, we invented the stuff and - for the most part over the past century - democracies have done better for themselves than their totalitarian counterparts.*

With all of our anti-democratic tendencies (to be discussed later in this blog, I promise), humans also have our fair share of innate behaviors that lend themselves to democratic behavior.

Altruism. Like almost every other non-bacterial species on earth, humans are by nature altruistic. We are neither rocks nor islands. We frequently give to others when there is no direct benefit for us - and we enjoy the sensation of giving. What's up with that? There are a couple of levels at which humans are naturally nice to others, at the most basic level - "kin altruism," at least as behavioral biologists understand it - there is a clear evolutionary reason.

The idea behind kin altruism is simple: when I sacrifice something to help my sister, son, niece or cousin it actually helps me - or, at least my genes.

To understand, we have to take a step back to get a handle on evolutionary theory. You've heard of "survival of the fittest," the idea that evolution works by winnowing out those of us not really good at surviving life's rat race and leaving behind those who win the survival game. But to really grasp evolution, it's important to understand what "survival" means. Whether or not you survive until a ripe old age of 100 is irrelevant; what matters is whether you - or, to be specific - your genes survive, in the form of children, grandchildren, etc.

You are probably familiar with the idea of the "selfish gene" - the concept that evolution is really just a way for genes to get themselves replicated. This theory has been largely maligned - often with good cause - because it's been distorted in understanding human evolution, but the core concept is apt. Genes that are good at increasing your "reproductive success" will tend to proliferate in a population. Genes that cut off your chance of having lots of kids and grandkids will tend to disappear.

(By the way, evolutionary theory sometimes gets a bad rap because there's an idea that genes "strategize" on how to proliferate. Obviously, that's not what happens; there's no thinking in evolution, instead every once in a while genes accidentally "mutate." If you're a cavelady and you get a mutation that gives you super-strengthening breast milk, that mutation might spread after a few generations; if, however, you get a mutation that dries up your breast milk, chances are that mutation will die out pretty fast.)

You don't have to be a parent to know that moms and dads have some pretty strong instincts to sacrifice for their children (or, in some of my friends' cases, have the lifeblood sucked out of them). But we also make sacrifices for our siblings, nieces, nephews, parents and cousins; that's because just as our genes are in our children, they also are in our blood relatives.

I'm a single gal, but - in an evolutionary context - I actually have the equivalent of 2.75 children in the form of my nine "blood" nieces and nephews; that is, those nine nieces and nephews have the same amount of my DNA as would almost three of my own children (imaginary, for now). It's not surprising that I have maternal feelings towards them, particularly the two daughters of my one full brother. That makes sense - if I put the same energy into insuring that my two nieces grow up into healthy women, my genes get as much benefit as if I had raised a daughter of my own. (For those curious about my math: if I had a child, she would share 50% of my DNA. My brother also has 50% of my DNA, so his daughters each have 25% of my genes. 25% + 25% = 50%.

More on our democratic instincts in later posts...

*This statement is generally more true for wealthy democracies. As Fareed Zakaria, among others, has pointed out - democracies tend to work when there is a foundation of civil society and individual liberty that often comes with a strong middle class and wealth. In poorer countries, democracy can often lead to instability and, paradoxically, repression.