Evolution of Social Behavior and Opportunities That Arise

Evolution of Social Behavior and Opportunities That Arise

The Evolution of Social Behavior and Opportunities That Arise

CA499

Prof

12014

Abstract

Social evolution is inherent to human society since man is constantly interacting with technological, economic, demographic, and social forces. These changes do not follow a specific channel, but the result is creation of new social needs and wants. “Public good capitalism” dictates that though businesses emerge to make profit, they also need to meet a social need.

The sexual revolution, the women rights activism, and the gay and lesbian rights movements agitated for rights equality, but they also created social vacuums, ergo creating business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, each social evolution creates unique needs and wants, meaning business opportunities are not uniform for all social changes.

The Evolution of Social Behavior and Opportunities That Arise

A defining feature of mankind is the ability to organize, and socialize with the immediate environment, which can either be the natural environment, social groups and organizations. While this feature largely relates to man’s propensity to make the best of most situations, such as living communally to offer greater protection to society members; it also relates to the innate nature of man’s curiosity.

Yeats and Yeats (2007) observe that curiosity in man fuels the need to learn, and investigate, and can only be satisfied “. . . behaviorally through exploration”, and this in turn helps man attain goals and make decisions (p. 118). This also implies that man acts in specific ways due to the curiosity aroused within, and this leads to change in behavior over time, since man is always exploring new possibilities and ideas.

However, more than act out of the simple drive to quench curiosity, individuals in society also act due to other motives. Whitworth and Whitworth (2010) point out that man in society acts out of self and social interests, in both the natural and social world. Therefore, when an individual starts a business, the aim is to make profit, but at the same time, meet a social need.

This is the reason in the first civilized nations, individuals decided to cooperate so that fighting enemies and securing food could be easier; thus in this instance, man cooperates with other people, in order to meet the selfish motive of self preservation. Whitworth and Whitworth (2010) add that human evolution paralleled social and technical evolutions, and is the reason man started living communally; social evolution dictated that forceful taking of items from other people was wrong, hence the commencement of simple trade.

Over millennia, social behavior has evolved, causing changes in social structures and paradigms. This is because individuals in society, who make up social structures and adhere to societal paradigms, primarily drive changes in social behavior. This is a premise Ross (2012) supports, stating that although explanations of social changes are en masse; the actions of the individual members of society are what explain the root cause of any social change or evolution.

In addition, Ross (2012) argues that social evolution leads to increased individualism, which in turn spurs further change in social behavior and subsequent social evolution. This is the reason changes in social behavior have led to opportunities for companies and organizations because social evolution imply that new needs and wants are created by the change in behavior of all or part of society members.

Thus, “public good capitalism” emerges to cater for the new needs brought on by changes in social behavior (Whitworth & Whitworth, 2010). Social behavior in man has been evolving in tandem with technical and organizational changes in society. This has led to societal wide changes in social behavior; and created new opportunities for businesses to fill gaps left by these changes; and therefore, the evolution of social behavior has over time been giving entrepreneur’s new opportunities.

Evolution of Social Behavior and Opportunities That Arise

Factors Affecting Social Behaviors

Social behaviors have been evolving for as long as man has been around. This is because changes in living conditions and the environment dictate that man adapts in order to optimize their chances of survival (Boesch, 2012). For instance, in the first civilizations; societies had to discover the “golden rule” of not pillaging each other in order to live peacefully, and instead chose to trade what they had with what they needed (Whitworth & Whitworth, 2010).

This meant that individuals in society could live in harmony, leading to tighter bonds between members of the same community, and increasing the odds of survival. Boesch (2012) also supports this outlook citing an experiment on chimpanzees and human beings that showed both mammals usually changed their social behavior in order to solve problems, and care for weaker members of a social group. Therefore, the external environment is a great motivation for human beings to change behavior in order to maximize their chances of survival.

Nelson (2006) adds to this premise, arguing that social evolution resides in culture itself “. . . as a body of practice, beliefs, values, and norms, that are broadly shared within a society” (p. 504). So, the direct interactions of human beings, their environment, as well as cultural components of society contribute to social evolution.

Apart from changing behavior in order to survive in the external environment, technological changes in the environment also lead to change in social behavior. The main reason for this is that exposing an individual to a new way of doing the same thing, implies that interaction with the process changes, leading to a change in behavior. This is an outlook Duckworth (2009) clearly states arguing that:

Behavior is thought to primarily drive evolutionary change because a change in behavior that results in a switch to a new environment or new way of interacting with the environment exposes organisms to novel selection pressures resulting in evolution of . . . life history and physiology. (p. 14).

Thus, implying that introduction of a new technology, gives individuals more choice on how to interact with the environment, and in extension other people because the technology has created a new social paradigm. This is a premise Greenwood and Guner (2010) buttress stating that social evolution relates to technological changes in society, which affect the production and consumption abilities; which create an incentive to individuals not to abide by social mores and customs.

So, when people start changing their behavior in order to take advantage of new opportunities, societal wide changes emerge, leading to a social evolution (Greenwood & Guner, 2010). For instance, the development of the contraceptive pill in the sixties, led to the sexual revolution because attitudes on sex and the fear of getting pregnant changed since, a new technology (the pill) had shattered any fears of sexual activity before marriage (Greenwood & Guner, 2010).

Finally, an explanation of the evolution of social behavior is in cooperation in joint enterprises in society. De Silva et al. (2010) states that in cooperation in joint enterprises, individuals often act selfishly, looking to reap more than they put in such situations. This is because individuals try to make sure that they use as little personal resources as possible, yet gain as much as possible from the rest of society.

However, in case participation in the joint enterprise is voluntary, participants will often join in even when altruism, where other people reap all benefits of a contribution, is strong (De Silva et al., 2010). Therefore, in the case of social change, such as the fight for racial equality, only a few individuals drive the evolution, because the social order of the day resists the sought after change and sanctions such as jail may be in the offing.

Society members may also not join the movement if asked to, but if society members see the benefits inherent in the social change, then they are likely to participate in the social change, even though they personally may not live to see the benefits of the same. Therefore, the reasons why social evolutions take place are many and varied, ranging from technological and environmental changes, to innate factors in human beings such as the desire to create a better society.

Evolution of Social Behavior and Opportunities That Arise

The Revolution of Social Evolution

Social evolution in societies takes place over a long period. This is because though measured at a societal level, social evolution propagates through individuals in society. A premise Ross (2012) concurs with noting that “. . . actions of collectives must ultimately decompose into, and this be explained by reference to, actions of their individual members” (p. 3). Nevertheless, in order for social evolution to take place, there has to be a tipping point; a revolution that triggers the start of the social evolution. Rousseau (2006) argues that while specific historical changes are hard to predict, the major triggers of social change fall into four variables: technological, environmental, economic, and demographic.

To illustrate these variables Rousseau (2006) offers an example of a primitive society that is undergoing growth, in order to survive, the society forms a language so that communication becomes easier, and this can help that particular society survive since members of that society can communicate and direct each other to food, and warn each other on danger.

Again, to illustrate the variable of environment, Wasielesk and Hayibor (2009) explain that in the establishment of organizations, values such as altruism, reciprocity and social exchange emerge because in the specific environment of the business organization, these values are important in helping the business survive. Finally, to illustrate the variable of technology, Cohen (2012) argues that when the contraceptive pill was developed in the sixties, sexual attitudes and behavior in society changed because the risk inherent in sexual intercourse; pregnancy, was removed and this liberated sexual activity to the masses; the married and unmarried who did not now face the risk of pregnancy.

Thus, specific changes in social behavior emerge due to the need to adapt to new conditions of life, and these changes only begin with a trigger; a revolution that signals the start of a social evolution.

Evolution in Social Behavior

Over the years, there have been major evolutions in social behavior in human society. These changes have either affected the whole society, or a part of society, and this is what has determined how fast adoption of changes in social behavior takes place. A number of factors have driven social evolutions over the years, and the speed at which the evolution has taken place has been determined by the technology of the era. This therefore, means that as technology progressed, social evolutions took place much faster, and adopted by the public at a slightly faster pace than the evolution preceding it.

The Sexual Revolution