Sociobiology: The New Synthesis

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis is a 1975 book by Edward O. Wilson which attempted to explain social behavior in animals from an evolutionary perspective.

Wilson drew upon a massive amount of scholarship on a wide range of animal species, including his own work on the social insects. In part, Wilson's book is part of a broader debate in evolutionary theory about the ultimate causes of altruism. In 1963-4, William D. Hamilton had published a pair of important articles which finally allowed the degree of relatedness between two individuals to be quantified. Hamilton's work was a crucial part of the foundation of Wilson's Sociobiology. And though Wilson became the most well-known proponent of an evolutionary explanation for social behavior, others-- including Richard Dawkins and Robert Trivers-- had published similar ideas in the years before Sociobiology. However, Wilson drew much of the criticism-- particularly in response to his chapter on human behavior.

Upon its publication, Sociobiology found a range of critics from inside and outside the scientific establishment. Political liberals were concerned that Wilson's book would be used to justify social inequality. Feminists worried about gender inequality. Furthermore, Sociobiology also came in for heavy criticism from some quarters of the scientific establishment; Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin were two of Wilson's most vociferous scientific critics. The dramatic climax of the furore over the book came at the February 1978 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), when, as Wilson was about to speak, a group of protesters charged the stage and doused him with water.

In response to his critics, and in an attempt to refine the findings of Sociobiology 's chapter of Sociobiology on human behavior, Wilson wrote two books: On Human Nature (1979), which won a Pulitzer Prize, and Genes, Mind and Culture (1981) with Charles J. Lumsden.