Are you naughty or nice? A team of scientists developed a mathematical model to understand how some people evolve to become nice while other individuals stay nasty. Findings suggested that some people are genetically programmed to be nice.
In the past years, the theory of kin enabled biologists to understand why some species adopt an altruistic behavior despite the dangers that come with it. For instance, worker bees sacrifice their lives to protect the queen bee's welfare. Some workers even commit suicidal attacks to fight out intruders. The worker bees are wired to have altruistic behaviors.
In the new study, the researchers wanted to find out if it is just our genes or also the environment that make an individual naughty or nice. For the first time, scientists were able to explain genetic polymorphism's role in social interaction.
In particular, scientists can now analyze the genetic programming that explains why some people evolve to be nice despite living side to side with another who seems to exploit the other's niceness.
In the study, the researchers took inspiration from microbes who live in a colony. They created a social evolution model to help them analyze how much of it is influenced by the surrounding environment.
The researchers discovered that an individual's behavior can often progress to a point where it can be determined by a set of hereditary genetic tendencies. This genetic programming can accurately determine social relationships, which include one's affinity to other community members and surroundings.
Instead of directly responding to what they feel or experience, the hereditary genetic tendencies kick in. The research was published in the PLOS Computational Biology journal on June 24.
Human behavior is flexible. People base their actions on what they see after processing the information gathered about the world. But some species depend on genetic instructions for their actions. As such, individuals have different behaviors based on their inborn genetic variants.
"What we have been able to show is how you can get a situation where you end up with distinct levels of genetically determined niceness coexisting within populations," said co-author Dr. Sasha Dall, a senior lecturer in mathematical ecology at the University of Exeter.
In other words, a person's ability to be kind, despite conversing with a rude person, is inherited. Just the same, a rude person will most likely remain rude even when they're talking to someone who is inherently nice.
"Social evolution theory hasn't previously addressed genetic polymorphism. We have developed a model that allows us to explore this within a general framework alongside other behavioral influences," said lead author Professor Olof Leimar from Stockholm University.
