ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how humans make use of their evolved faculties, both conscious and unconscious, to assist in the manner of addressing social dilemmas rapidly in order to optimise inclusive fitness. The ability of the brain to form a rich picture of self–other is at the heart of social cognition that enables both evaluation and consequence of behaviour to be simulated. Empathy and secure attachment do not imply moral behaviour of a universal nature. Such behaviour may be nepotistic, parochial and in other ways unfair to those outside a prescribed low distinctiveness or in-group. Social interaction and secure attachment produce a reward or gratification for an individual through the production of dopamine neurons. Isolation is found to have the opposite effect, provoking a strong desire to seek social interaction through heightened levels of anxiety. The relationship between the human situational interaction remains relatively unrefined.
