Re: poly: Showing That You Care: The Evolution of Health Altruism

I ran into something right away that I didn't understand:

This paper begins to explore one possible set of answers to this question. While
 only some of
these answers seem original, they together seem to o#er uniquely simple and unif
ied synthesis of
diverse phenomena.
In particular, we explore the evolutionarily<AD>plausible assumptions that our a
ncestors
1. cared more about their social allies, especially those with more and better a
llies,
2. su#ered more crises when they had few allies (i.e., were of low status), cris
es being events
which divert energies from investing in health,
3. were unsure about who would remain a long<AD>time ally, and some often knew t
hings others
did not about the chances of remaining allies.
These assumptions imply many things. For example, a person B considering how muc
h to invest
in health would weigh both the chance that he would end up with many allies (hig
h status), and
the chance he would end up with few allies (low status). By assumption 2, the be
tter he thought
his chance of ending with many allies, the more sense it would make to invest in
 health. He might
invest via self<AD>care, reduced risk<AD>behaviors, or a reduced stress response
Received on Mon May 3 17:31:22 1999