Paradoxes of Evolutionary Biology in Term Paper

Total Length: 1635 words ( 5 double-spaced pages)

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The purpose of this set of questions is to see whether they would engage in similar action even if they know that the other individual will not reciprocate given the reverse of their circumstances. All individuals will answer blindly, and we will anonomously collect all of the information.

Discussion:

There are many different results that are possible within this experiment. First, the expected result is that the majority of individuals will answer that they would act altruistically. However, they could act altruistically in some cases, as when they are giving change back to others, but selfishly when it comes to saving a drowning person and risking their own lives. Another scenario is that they could act selfishly when they are in the room by themselves, but when they are doing so in conjunction with someone else, they might be motivated by the visual sign of someone else to be altruistic.
I argue that in most cases individuals will be altruistic and that they are altruistic because it is a reciprocated trait. When it comes to the questions of whether they would act altruistically knowing that the other person would not do the same. I believe the majority of individuals will still act altruistically. Although this result might differ from person to person.

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