In 1975 Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson wrote a controversial book called Sociobiology: The New Synthesis in which he proposed to undertake "the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior" (Meachan 1998, pp. 110-113). Following a lifelong fascination with ants and their social structures, Wilson was interested in determining the degree to which genetic evolution influences cultural evolution. He applied the principles of evolution to the analysis of behavioral questions such as altruism, competition, cooperation, parasitism, dominance, population control, sex differences, and division of labor among social animals.

The theory of natural selection formulated by nineteenth-century British naturalist Charles Darwin would seem to indicate that the most successful animals would be those who act in their own self-interest. Yet clearly, social animals—societies of cooperating organisms—exist and often put the welfare of the group above their own. Wilson attempted to explain this using genetics and...