Survival of the Fittest... or the Kindest?
Dr. Laurie Santos and Dr. Jamil Zaki explore how cooperation and kindness, rather than ruthless competition, are often the winning strategies for happiness and success. They challenge social Darwinism, presenting evidence from both the animal kingdom and human society that mutual aid thrives, especially in tough times.
Deep Dive Analysis
10 Topic Outline
The Tale of Two Fishing Villages: Competition vs. Cooperation
Peter Kropotkin: A Radical Biologist's Early Life
Kropotkin's Siberian Expedition and the Discovery of Mutual Aid
The Rise and Fall of Kropotkin's Influence
Hurricane Maria and the Cooperative Macaques of Cayo Santiago
Human Kindness in Times of Crisis
The Power of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in Human Behavior
Bob Chapman's Journey to Truly Human Leadership
Barry-Wehmiller's Mutual Aid Strategy During the 2008 Downturn
Building Cooperative Social Worlds
6 Key Concepts
Social Darwinism
A misinterpretation of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, which argues that human life is a constant 'war of one against all,' where only the 'fittest' survive through intense competition. This view suggests that selfishness is inherent in human nature.
Mutual Aid
A concept observed by Peter Kropotkin, where animals and humans cooperate with one another in the face of tough conditions, helping each other overcome difficulties to thrive. It suggests that working together can be a more successful strategy for survival than pure competition.
Survival of the Kindest
An evolutionary principle suggesting that in many situations, especially challenging ones, individuals and groups who work together and are cooperative tend to survive and flourish more effectively than those who are purely competitive or despotic.
Homo Economicus
A hypothetical construct used by some economists to describe a person who is solely focused on maximizing their own personal gain. Research indicates that people are generally more helpful and cooperative than this model suggests, but learning about this concept can paradoxically make individuals more selfish.
Stack Ranking
A management practice where managers are required to rank their team members from best to worst performers, often leading to warnings or layoffs for those at the bottom. This system, based on a competitive view of the workplace, can decrease happiness, creativity, and productivity among employees.
Truly Human Leadership
A business philosophy, championed by Bob Chapman, that emphasizes caring for employees like family and measuring success by the positive impact on people's lives. It posits that a culture of caring acts as 'premium fuel' for a business model, leading to better performance and employee well-being.
7 Questions Answered
Environments that necessitate working together for survival, like ocean fishing with heavy equipment, foster greater trust and generosity, whereas environments that encourage individual competition, like lake fishing for limited spots, can lead to less trusting and more selfish behavior.
While Darwin's work was co-opted by 'social Darwinists' to support a view of constant competition, scientists like Peter Kropotkin observed extensive 'mutual aid' in nature, suggesting that cooperation is also a crucial strategy for survival and thriving, especially in harsh conditions.
In extreme crises, like rhesus macaques during Hurricane Maria, animals can exhibit increased cooperation and reduced aggression, with kinder, more cooperative individuals having higher survival rates, demonstrating that 'survival of the fittest' can often mean 'survival of the kindest.'
Contrary to cynical stereotypes, research shows that during disasters (like Hurricane Katrina) and global crises (like the COVID-19 pandemic), human communities often exhibit increased kindness, cooperation, donations to charity, volunteering, and helping strangers.
Yes, human predictions and stories about their own nature can become self-fulfilling prophecies. For example, learning about 'homo economicus' can make economics students more selfish, and workplaces using 'stack ranking' can make employees less cooperative and productive.
Truly Human Leadership, as practiced by Bob Chapman, focuses on using business as a force for good by caring for people like family, measuring success by the impact on lives, and fostering a culture of mutual aid, which can lead to improved employee retention and financial success.
A company can implement a 'mutual aid' approach, such as asking all employees to take a temporary unpaid leave (e.g., a month off) so that no one has to be laid off. This strategy can foster a sense of safety and shared responsibility, ultimately improving employee morale, retention, and the company's long-term performance.
14 Actionable Insights
1. Beware Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Understand that the theories you adopt about human nature, such as social Darwinism or homo economicus, can become self-fulfilling prophecies, shaping your behavior and the behavior of those around you.
2. Build Cooperative Social Worlds
Recognize that humans can intentionally construct social environments that prioritize cooperation over competition, aligning with Kropotkin’s mutual aid principles rather than social Darwinism.
3. Choose Cooperative Environments
Actively seek out and engage in environments that require working with others, as this fosters generosity and trust, leading to a more fulfilling way of life compared to competitive, solitary environments.
4. Practice Truly Human Leadership
Lead by measuring success through the positive impact on people’s lives (customers, team members, suppliers), fostering a culture of caring as the ‘premium fuel’ for your business model.
5. Leaders: Avoid Selfish Views
If you are a leader, avoid adopting a selfish view of people, as this can negatively change the behavior of your team members, making them more selfish and less productive, ultimately hindering collective success.
6. Leadership Impacts Personal Lives
Understand that your leadership role profoundly affects people’s health and personal lives, making business a powerful force for good if leaders have the courage and skills to care for those they lead.
7. Act Like a Family in Crisis
When faced with a crisis, consider how a caring family would respond by having everyone pitch in and share a little pain to prevent any single member from suffering a great deal, as demonstrated by Barry Waymiller’s no-layoff policy.
8. Volunteer to Aid Colleagues
If you are in a position to do so, volunteer to take on a greater share of a burden (e.g., more time off without pay) to help colleagues who may be less able to afford the impact, fostering mutual aid and safety.
9. Build a Safe Organizational Bus
Prioritize building a safe organizational ‘bus’ (business model) and ensure leaders know how to ‘drive’ it safely, so that anyone invited to join the organization feels secure and cared for.
10. Justify Not Caring for People
Instead of asking how you can afford to care for people, challenge yourself to justify not caring for them, recognizing that caring for your team is not a cost but a fundamental aspect of successful leadership.
11. Cooperate Against Shared Challenges
Recognize that in the face of difficult conditions or a harsh natural world, helping each other overcome difficulties leads to better outcomes for everyone, rather than individual competition.
12. Expect Goodness in Crises
During tough times and disasters, expect people to come together and help one another, as research shows these situations often bring out the best in human nature, increasing acts of charity, volunteering, and helping strangers.
13. Question Mind’s Happiness Assumptions
Be aware that your mind might be wrong or lying about what truly makes you happy, especially regarding cynical views of human nature; understanding the science of the mind can help redirect you towards genuine happiness.
14. Remove Cynical Biases
To perceive the inherent goodness in people, actively remove your ‘mud-colored glasses’ of cynicism and negative assumptions, rather than trying to force a positive view, as evidence supports human cooperation.
6 Key Quotes
Most of us would prefer the sea. We find comfort in trusting others, and joy and meaning in connecting with them. But sadly, a lot of us think we have to live like the lake fishers, stepping over or on each other to get ahead.
Jamil Zaki
Whatever has to be done to get more resources and produce more babies, that's what's going to be done. And it was thought that that was mostly intense competition, what Tennyson would later call nature, red in tooth and claw, that it was just a bloodbath out there. But a bloodbath is not what Kropotkin saw. Instead, what he saw is what he began to call mutual aid.
Lee Dugatkin
When the going got tough, it was the nice guys that survived. And flourished. In a changing world in which monkeys had to sit in close proximity to stay cool, there was a cost to being a jerk. In this environment, cooperation was more successful than competition.
Dr. Laurie Santos
Business could be the most powerful force for good in the world if we had leaders who had the skills and courage to care for the people they had the privilege of leading.
Bob Chapman
And what was astounding to me is people didn't really feel like they were giving up a month's pay. They really felt like they were helping their fellow team members keep their job. And we even had some of the older team members say, look, I'm 55. I can afford to take two months off. And maybe young Bill or young Mary, who's got a young family, who can't afford the month. And so we actually had people volunteer to take other people's time off.
Bob Chapman
To see the best in people, we don't need to put on rose-colored glasses. We just need to take off the mud-colored glasses we usually walk around with.
Dr. Jamil Zaki
1 Protocols
No Layoffs Approach (Barry-Wehmiller during 2008 downturn)
Bob Chapman- Ask every employee to take a month off without pay.
- Allow older team members who could afford it to volunteer to take more time off to help younger colleagues with families.