In this blog post, we will examine how altruistic behavior affects the formation and evolution of friendships based on the “birds of a feather flock together” hypothesis.
Have you ever sacrificed yourself to help someone else? Or have you ever had someone willingly do something for you even though it didn’t benefit them in any way? Through experiences like these, we can understand how important altruistic behavior is. We are cautious when asking for help because we are concerned that it may be an inconvenience to the other person. When we receive help with something we consider inconvenient, and the other person does not ask for anything in return, they are acting altruistically. In a world where altruistic and selfish behavior coexist, altruistic behavior is not evolutionarily stable. This is because selfish behavior will eventually prevail if altruistic behavior is repeated. However, altruistic behavior still exists, and in this article, we will use the “birds of a feather flock together hypothesis” to explain how altruistic behavior has been maintained and evolved to this day. We will explore the reasons why altruistic behavior has survived through the process of classmates gathering together to prepare for a sports day and the results of this “birds of a feather flock together” behavior.
The dictionary definition of “birds of a feather flock together” is “people or things that are similar in nature or character tend to associate with each other.” This can be expressed by the sayings, “Birds of a feather flock together,” and “To know a person, look at their friends.” Altruistic and selfish behaviors can also occur in groups of like birds, and examples of this can be found in school life. School athletic meets are opportunities for classes to bond, but they can also cause major fights among friends. Whether a class becomes harmonious or divided depends on the behavior of the class members as they prepare for the athletic meet. In the context of preparing for a sports day, altruistic behavior can be seen as performing one’s role well and helping other friends. Selfish behavior is not fulfilling one’s role, causing other friends to have to do one’s share of the work. While the class president and vice president lead the class, there are always friends who do not participate in class activities and pass their work on to others.
The important point here is that altruistic behavior goes beyond simply performing one’s role and contributes to strengthening teamwork. The preparations necessary for a sports day go beyond the simple division of labor and provide an opportunity to enhance community spirit and build mutual trust. Many of the things prepared for the sports day, such as class banners, slogans, and cheers, are ultimately used by all class members. If you do not participate in the preparation process, you will only benefit from the results of your classmates’ time and effort. If all class members act selfishly, there will be no harmony or conflict in the class, but the preparations for the sports day will not proceed. Conflict arises when altruistic and selfish behaviors coexist. As a result, it is the students who act altruistically who participate in the preparations for the sports day, and when the next event comes around, they will stick together based on their experiences at the sports day.
Students who act altruistically will gather together and proceed with their work while excluding students who acted selfishly, and within that group, they will be able to prepare for the event in a cooperative and harmonious atmosphere. The same situation will apply to next year’s sports day and other events. If you ask B, who was in the same class as A last year, about their newly assigned classmate A, you can find out whether A is altruistic or selfish. Based on this, students who are evaluated as altruistic and cooperative by their friends are more likely to stick together. When altruistic behavior clusters together in this way, selfish behavior is excluded from the group, and eventually only altruistic behavior remains, creating conditions conducive to the evolution of cooperative or altruistic behavior as described in the “birds of a feather flock together” hypothesis.
Furthermore, through this process, altruistic behavior becomes established as a social norm that goes beyond individual tendencies. In other words, an environment is created in which altruistic behavior is socially recognized and rewarded. This becomes a driving force for altruistic behavior to become sustainable through positive external evaluation, in addition to internal satisfaction.
As we have seen above, the emergence of altruistic humans and the maintenance and evolution of altruistic cooperative behavior can be explained by the “birds of a feather flock together hypothesis.” Prior to the “birds of a feather flock together hypothesis,” the “kin selection hypothesis” and the “repetition-reciprocity hypothesis” were proposed, but the altruistic behavior explained by these two hypotheses is based on the self-interest of the actors. Furthermore, these hypotheses have limitations in explaining all cooperative behaviors in a broad human society. The significance of the “birds of a feather flock together hypothesis” lies in its ability to explain why true altruistic behavior occurs even in cases where there are no blood ties or countless repeated interactions, as in the case of the classmates in this article.
The title of this article, “The Result of Birds of a Feather,” ultimately agrees with the content of the “birds of a feather hypothesis.” First, when altruistic behavior is grouped with altruistic behavior, altruistic and cooperative results can be repeated. Second, selfish behavior that is excluded from altruistic behavior groups together with other selfish behavior, creating evolutionarily disadvantageous results. In other words, the reason altruistic humans survive in this world is because altruistic behavior is evolutionarily advantageous. However, the “birds of a feather flock together” hypothesis does not fully explain the evolution of altruistic behavior. As a simple example, when selfish behavior is the norm, people will choose altruistic behavior rather than choosing another selfish behavior. This is similar to the prisoner’s dilemma, where a person in a position of betrayal (selfish behavior) can obtain a higher reward when the other person chooses cooperation (altruistic behavior). In order to explain the evolution of altruistic behavior despite the existence of cases that do not fit the “birds of a feather flock together” hypothesis, a hypothesis that can cover more cases is needed.
