How do humans behave before they acquire Republicanism?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4766490.stm
Infants as young as 18 months show altruistic behaviour, suggesting humans
have a natural tendency to be helpful, German researchers have discovered.
In experiments reported in the journal Science, toddlers helped strangers
complete tasks such as stacking books.
Young chimps did the same, providing the first evidence of altruism in non
human primates.
Altruism may have evolved six million years ago in the common ancestor of
chimps and humans, the study suggests.
Just rewards
Scientists have long debated what leads people to "act out of the goodness
of their hearts" by helping non-relatives regardless of any benefits for
themselves.
Human society depends on people being able to collaborate with others -
donating to charity, paying taxes and so on - and many scientists have
argued that altruism is a uniquely human function, hard-wired into our
brains.
The latest study suggests it is a strong human trait, perhaps present more
than six million years ago in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and
humans.
"This is the first experiment showing altruistic helping towards goals in
any non-human primate," said Felix Warneken, a psychologist at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
"It's been claimed chimpanzees act mainly for their own ends; but in our
experiment, there was no reward and they still helped."
'Astonishing'
Dr Warneken and colleague Professor Michael Tomasello wanted to see whether
very young children who had not yet learned social skills were willing to
help strangers.
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