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In an SFI Community Lecture June 27 in Santa Fe, SFI Omidyar Fellow alumnus Dan Hruschka searched for clues in the origins of human friendship – how it develops, how it varies across cultures, and how it compares to social ties in other species.

Friends sacrifice for one another without apparent concern for consequences or reciprocation. Such unconditional acts of selflessness provide an important buffer against hardship, both for individuals and for human societies. But they also pose an evolutionary puzzle. How does humankind benefit from unconditional aid when false friends and exploiters abound?

Watch the lecture (61 minutes)

Read the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican (June 27, 2012)

Hruschka, an SFI Omidyar Fellow alumnus, is an assistant professor of anthropology at Arizona State University and author of "Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship."

This lecture was sponsored in memory of Kate Klein, from the Kate Klein Fund at the Santa Fe Community Foundation. The 2012 Community Lecture series is sponsored by Los Alamos National Bank.

SFI’s Community Lectures offer a window into the Institute’s research to understand the common patterns in physical, computational, biological, and social complex systems that underlie the most profound issues facing science and society today. This year’s lecture series focuses on human individual and social behavior. Lectures are free and open to the public, but seating is limited.

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