The world seems to be quite a mess right now doesn’t it? War in the middle east and Ukraine, and with the resulting economic turmoil it seems as though humans are always at one another’s throats and locked into an eternal and deadly competition with one another.
But to think that humans are primarily competitive would be to miss the reality of thousands of years of human history and pre-history. Over the vast amount of time we’ve been on this planet, we have actually been a remarkably co-operative species.
We had to cooperate because the human body is really frail compared to other animals. We are mostly hairless with small teeth and no sharp claws. We can’t run very fast and we aren’t really that strong.
Our true advantage is our ability to collaborate. Early hunter gatherer societies relied on food sharing, group childcare, co-ordinated hunting and the sharing of ideas and innovations. There is safety in numbers and so by helping one other, which is known as reciprocal altruism, early humans increased their long-term survival chances. Co-operation is a survival strategy not a weakness.
If you take a look at our brains you will see that we are neurologically built for cooperation. The human brain produces a neurotransmitter called oxytocin that promotes trust, bonding and reduces stress.
It’s a hormone significantly involved in child brith and aids in mother-child connection. Positive social interrelations and physical touch increase oxytocin levels in all of us which is why it is often referred to as the ‘love hormone.’ The brain also has nerve cells called mirror neurons which aid in understanding other people’s actions and emotions. Research has shown that social isolation and loneliness has measurable negative effects on our health. When we don’t connect, when we don’t cooperate, we get sick and miserable.
The biggest indicator that we are a cooperative bunch of apes is that we have complex language which evolved to share information, coordinate actions and build culture. Without cooperation language has no function. Communicating with other people assumes a shared intent.
If you are still not convinced, think about this – even competition relies on cooperation. Any competitive system is actually based on people working together or those systems having a base of cooperation to function.
Competing sports teams play by agreed rules and have referees. The individual teams themselves may have competitive elements among players but they come together as a group to try and win a match.
Imagine two large corporations who are market competitors. Each one relies on the innovations and interactions of countless generations of people from the past and in order to keep going their current employees and bosses have to work together.
Of course we don’t always get on with other people be it in our relationships or careers but for the most part we get together and we create. So competition is a layer on top of cooperation, not a replacement for it.
Because our brains are wired to look out for danger we tend to see it everywhere and social media apps, politicians, and news organisations exploit that to the max so that it is easy to think of our societies as violent and divisive.
But take a look around you right now.
You’re probably reading this on an electronic device that wouldn’t exist without cooperation. Your house, your car, the roads you drive on, the schools your kids go to, your workplace, in fact everything in our lives exists because humans got together and built it all co-operatively. This is especially true when a disaster strikes and thousands of emergency workers and countless volunteers rush to aid the victims and help to clean up.
This is something to remember when you are feeling down about humanity and especially when your social media feed or your go-to news source, or even a billionaire politician or entrepreneur tries to convince you otherwise.
