Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky is an in-depth look on how humans behave!
One behavior the author mentions in the novel is called the Reciprocal altruism
Now it may sound complicated but it is fairly simple and you would have actually known and done the simple sounding version of this act!
Technically though reciprocal altruism is a social behavior where an organism helps another at a cost to itself, with the expectation of getting help in return later.
This is actually a crucial behavior in animals for cooperation among non-relatives, seen in baboons forming coalitions or cleaner fish cleaning larger fish, relying on memory and recognizing “cheaters” to maintain fairness!
Remember that the first act of altruism is not easy!
Acting altruistically (reducing own fitness) with the expectation of future reciprocation, boosting long-term fitness is the theme here and this term was coined by Robert Trivers in 1971 to explain cooperation beyond kin selection.
The fact here is that individuals help those who have helped them, often using past behavior as a cue for future reliability. The chief point here is that there is an essence of give and take! If you cheat in between you are out!
Organisms must remember past interactions to identify and avoid individuals who take help but don’t give it back (cheaters)!
If you thought it happens only in Humans; it is surprisingly common in animals!
Like say in Baboons, the Males form temporary alliances (coalitions) to gain mating access, expecting support later.
In fishes like the cleaner Fish, the small fish eat parasites off larger fish; larger fish protect them in return!
In many vampire Bats, the bats that fail to feed may receive regurgitated blood from a successful bat, expecting the favor returned.
In humans of course this is the norm! One individual helps another expecting the favor to be returned in kind or cash! Here the chief factor is trust! If you that is lost then the whole deal is out!
Which is why that famous story of the person who steals the horse from another who actually helped him is the key!
In that the person tells to the thief, “Do not tell anyone how you stole! Then people will stop trusting each other!”
The thief then gets a pang of guilty conscience and returns the horse!
Do help and get help in return! That is Reciprocal Altruism! You of course know it as the more common saying; “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours!”
So whose back are you going to scratch to get reciprocal altruism!?
Then again true altruism is rare and one rare example is a soldier who does not hesitate to give his or her life for the country!
One such legend was General Bipin Rawat…
You will be missed sir
Jai Hind…
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