Good manners have ‘evolved’

New research has found there is an “invisible hand” that guides our actions and manners.

In the study carried out by researchers at the University of Leicester psychology department, good manners were found to be down to evolution.

The research sought to explain how “turn-taking” has evolved across a range of species. Researchers concluded there was an invisible hand which guided our actions in this respect.

Professor Andrew Colman and Dr Lindsay Browning carried out the study due to appear in the September issue of the journal Evolutionary Ecology Research.

Professor Colman said: “In human groups, turn-taking is usually planned and coordinated with the help of language.”

For example, he noted that people living together will often decide to take turns when it comes to carrying out activities such as taking children to school or doing the washing up. However, he said that turn-taking has evolved in a number of other species without language and the ability to negotiate agreements.

Professor Colman added: “Our findings confirm that cooperation does not always require benevolence or deliberate planning. This form of cooperation, at least, is guided by an invisible hand, as happens so often in Darwin’s theory of natural selection.”