If we evolved - What purpose does guilt serve?
by usualusername 21 Replies latest jw friends
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botchtowersociety
Feelings like guilt help us cooperate as social beings.
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cantleave
Google has the answers - pure cut and paste I'm afraid but I have had cider!!!
Many evolutionary psychologists and sociobiologists theorize that guilt, doubt and shame had value because these things helped human beings to engage in and maintain social relationships. Guilt, shame and doubt cause people to question their own behavior. From an evolutionary standpoint, these things acted as a brake on humans' inclination to act in way that would have negatively affected their social relationships. Self-doubt may cause an individual to modify or refrain from "anti-social" behavior. Evolutionary pyschologists suggest that emotions such as guilt and shame are components of what they call "reciprocal altruism."
"Reciprocal altruism, a decision is made to assume behavior that benefits another person who is not related, provided that demographic and social conditions exist to make it probable that the person who benefits someone else will in turn be the object of beneficial altruistic acts on the part of the beneficiary. These biologically founded and evolutionary mechanisms perhaps represent the foundation for many social feelings, including shame (a useful mechanism that can, in specific situations or in particular constitutions, become a disorder)."
From: "Shame and Psychopathology"
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bohm
(pasting my response from the other thread)
Imagine a primitive stone-age tribe. Now imagine a person is born into the tribe with absolutely no guilt. What do you think they feel about him? Do you think it will benefit him in the long run?
I know personally i would tend to stay away from a person who did not feel any guilt, thinking he was potentially dangerous. I certainly would not want to have children with him.
If you agree then there is your evolutionary advantage of guilt...
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cofty
In any social group fairness wins in the long run. A classic example is the Vampire Bat. If an individual fails to find a feed another bat will regurgitate blood at the roost and share it. If that bat fails to reciprocate on another occasion it will be rejected next time it is in need.
William Hamilton, Robert Trivers and Robert Axlerod's work in Game Theory has shown that cheats don't actually prosper in social animal groups.
Guilt may tend to limit attempts at cheating and restrain behavior that would result in short term benefit but less reproductive success in the long run.
Good question.
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wha happened?
well when we see someone without these, evolved traits, they seem to really derail. Sociopathic behavior, serial killers etc
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botchtowersociety
William Hamilton, Robert Trivers and Robert Axlerod's work in Game Theory has shown that cheats don't actually prosper in social animal groups.
This video by a neuroeconomist actually shows that.
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cofty
What a fascinating video! Thanks for posting that BTS
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usualusername
I hate to be a doofus but...........
This girl got away with murder.
Confessing did her nor her potential offspring no favours.
Survival of the fittest according to my knowledge was the strongest survive excluding morality.
Sorry for being so simplistic............ -
tootired2care
Great question!
I sure don't have any great answers for you, but I have observed this behavior in animals too. We have cats. It's so funny when they are doing something that they are not supposed to , and when you say something or give them a look, the whole countenance on their face changes, and it's so obvious that they know they did something wrong, because they usually quickly escape the situation. As a child I observed that dogs have very similair behavior too.