The Evolution of cooperation

The gene-centred or selfish-gene approach to evolution apparently conflicts with the observation
that cooperation is commonplace in human social interactions, and can also be
recognized in non-human animals. Without cooperation, higher-level units of evolution
could not have emerged. Here we summarize current evolutionary thinking on how cooperation
and altruism can evolve. We also discuss the results reached by game theoretic experiments
for studying social interactions, which indicate that humans do not conform to
Nash equilibrium (rational) predictions. These results are of wide interest to biologists
and social scientists, particularly if we want to have a common framework to understand
how sociality arises.