Nice Baboons
According to the standard logic, males compete with one another aggressively in order to achieve and maintain a high rank, which will in turn enable them to dominate reproduction and thus maximize the number of copies of their genes that are passed on to the next generation. But although aggression among baboons does indeed have something to do with attaining a high rank, it turns out to have virtually nothing to do with maintaining it. Dominant males rarely are particularly aggressive, and those that are typically are on their way out: the ones that need to use it are often about to lose it. Instead, maintaining dominance requires social intelligence and impulse control— the ability to form prudent coalitions, show some tolerance of subordinates, and ignore most provocations.
Recent work, moreover, has demonstrated that females have something to say about which males get to pass on their genes. The traditional view was based on a "linear access" model of reproduction: if one female is in heat, the alpha male gets to mate with her; if two are in heat, the alpha male and the second-ranking male get their opportunity; and so on. Yet we now know that female baboons are pretty good at getting away from even champions of male-male competition if they want to and can sneak off instead with another male they actually desire. And who would that be? Typically, it is a male that has followed a different strategy of building affiliative relations with the female— grooming her a lot, helping to take care of her kids, not beating her up. These nice-guy males seem to pass on at least as many copies of their genes as their more aggressive peers, not least because they can go like this for years, without the life-shortening burnout and injuries of the gladiators.
Robert M. Sapolsky
"A Natural History of Peace"; Foreign Affairs; January/February 2006
Sapolsky is a neuroendocrinology researcher; professor of biology, neurology, neurological sciences, and neurosurgery; and author of such books as Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst.