Sociobiology, also called behavioral ecology, is the study of the evolution of social behavior in all organisms, including human beings. The highly complex behaviors of individual animals become even more intricate when interactions among groups of animals are considered. Animal behavior within groups is known as social behavior. Sociobiology asks about the evolutionary advantages contributed by social behavior and describes a biological basis for such behavior. It is theory that uses biology and genetics to explain why people (and animals) behave the way they do.

Sociobiology is a relatively new science. In the 1970s, Edward O. Wilson, now a distinguished professor of biology at Harvard University, pioneered the subject. In his ground-breaking and controversial book, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Dr. Wilson introduced for the first time the idea that behavior is likely the product of an interaction between an individual's genetic makeup and the environment (or culture in...