Do you believe in free will?

[Angrboda]

@GC

It's what's known as a kinship selection effect. Our ancestors evolved certain self-sacrificing behaviors because the bulk of times, if you sacrificed yourself to save others, that would be the end of the propagation of your genes, but because those who are closely related to us share most of the same genetic material, we are effectively insuring the continuation of our genetic line by proxy. There is a weighting involved here of course, as J.B.S. Haldane wryly observed when he was asked if he would sacrifice himself to save a brother; he responded, "No, but I would for two brothers or eight cousins." I forget who said it, but the popular slogan is quite eminently true: "Evolution is smarter than you." There are still mysteries and vistas to be explored in the science of evolutionary biology, but it is astounding the breadth of phenomena which it can envelope.