Altruistic behavior is often seen as an exclusively human characteristic. However, behavioral research has uncovered numerous examples of altruistic behavior in the animal kingdom. In a new study, ...

This behavior is considered altruistic because it ultimately benefits the ability of the queen to produce offspring, while the worker bee remains sterile. For honey bees, the queen is typically the ...

In a new study, researchers have found that mice can instinctively exhibit rescue-like behavior toward anesthetized conspecifics—without any prior training or external rewards. The study, published in ...

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It seems reasonable to me that “unselfish” behavior in animals or humans can be similarly and variously explained by some combination of altruism, protective instincts, and reciprocal behavior. Why ...

In the proximate sense, this behavior of the ant is altruistic inasmuch that the ant is suffering a cost—death—to deliver a benefit to the parasite. However, the ant possesses no cognitive mechanisms ...