The quest for a biological explanation for altruism is intricately linked to our ideas of goodness. No wonder that biologists have taken it personally. Altruism - helping others at a cost to oneself - has been a stubborn thorn in the side of evolutionary biologists. If natural selection favours genes that produce traits which increase the reproductive success of the individuals in which they reside, then altruism is precisely the sort of behaviour that should disappear.
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