Video Report 3

Forrest Gump

The movie Forrest Gump features Tom Hanks in one of his best roles in his life - as a not-so-smart small-town guy who had small dreams yet contributed much to the shaping of American history in the little ways that he could . Forrest , the film 's protagonist , is the quintessential example of cooperation in evolutionary psychology

In the discourse of evolution , many scientists have insisted how indispensable cooperation was in the survival of the homo sapiens and the extinction of its ancestors . According to Augustin Fuentes of University of Notre

Dame , human beings cooperated with each other to avoid being by larger animals , such as big cats . More so , there has been pieces of evidence that concretely show how humans shared information as to the location of stone tools kilometers away , most of which are impossible to find had humans been on their own . Another important point in the cooperation theory is the concept of the in-group and out-group Human beings , in pursuit of their survival , establish alliances and groupings from which they may derive maximum benefit and determine survival . While prima facie , social behavior insofar as cooperation may only be due to the need to belong , among others , but these are ultimately rooted in natural selection and adaptation . On the other hand , subsumed under the theory of cooperation is the reciprocity principle between cooperators and defectors . In this principle , if a person gives beneficial help directed to another and the latter gives back such help given to the former , a continued mutual cooperative relationship exists . However , if the latter does otherwise , the former may cease giving beneficial help to the latter and choose some other person

In many instances , Forrest should how deeply he cooperated with his fellow beings on the film . Despite his not-so-smart understanding of things , he willingly let himself contribute in the development of other characters in the movie . One example is his relationship with Bubba , his African-American comrade in Vietnam . Despite the patent racial prejudice prevalent in American society in those days , Forrest Gump made Bubba his best friend and even opened a shrimp-catching business in his name . Such a relationship is very unusual because white Americans in the southern states do not necessarily engage intimately with African-Americans in those times . Yet , Forrest Gump saved Bubba in Vietnam and unflinchingly stood out for his African-American friend until the end . In the context of evolutionary psychology , such cooperation with an outcast as himself is imperative for his survival in Vietnam , especially as he has always been tagged as a retard by much of the army regiment to which they were assigned . As those who are weak do not have the opportunity to be aggressive in their environment , there is no other logical consequence but to huddle up with fellow weaklings and establish a formidable front in the sea of aggressive machismo in their regiment . Also , it must be remembered that , ultimately , even weaker species have an innate instinct to dominate despite their natural inherited weaknesses...