Psychology · Evolutionary & Biological Psychology
A topic within Evolutionary & Biological Psychology, itself one of 8 topics in that field and part of Psychology.
2 works
W. D. Hamilton
Shows that a gene for helping relatives can spread by natural selection whenever the benefit to the recipient, discounted by the degree of relatedness, exceeds the cost to the helper - the formal rule underlying kin selection.
Robert L. Trivers
Shows that natural selection can favour helping a non-relative, provided the help is likely to be repaid later, and derives from this the psychology needed to sustain it - emotions like gratitude, guilt and moralistic aggression against cheaters.
link checked 17 Sept 2026