the replicators produce people who will seek out their own kind and those who can adapt to a change in the environment will be more likely to survive than those who cannot adapt. He explains aggression in that overly aggressive behavior is counterproductive to survival because it wastes energy and puts the individual at risk. Being too doveish may put an individual at risk for domination by more aggressive types and reduce their survival potential.
An individual will be closer to his/her family than others because they share the same genes and therefore are more likely to have attributes in common (Dawkins, 1976). Protecting family is protecting the replicators of that family. Reproduction is tailored to the resources in the environment: having many offspring when resources are scarce is counter to survival. What many see as altruism is also a survival technique: birds pick tics from each other's heads in the hope that the others will reciprocate. They are acting for their own good, not the good of the species.
Dawkins theories on many of these issues fall in line with Harvard entomology professor E.O. Wilson's sociobiology theory (Brand and Carter, 1992; Jones, 2000). Wilson believes that social behavior could be explained in terms of evolution (Boeree, 1998). Wilson believes groups naturally close their door to outsiders and wage wars to protect the group and their survival. He explains altruism as an individual trying to protect their gene pool. Wilson believes people are sexually attracted to those who have characteristics which will maximize their genetic success. His theory was not well received by all at the time, and remains controversial. At the time he proposed his theory, sociology was dominated by behavioral learning theory. Lewontin was vehemently opposed to the theory, but it gradually gained acceptance, and evolved into evolutionary psychology (Dusek, 2002; Sociobiology, 2006).
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