★ Selected as Book of the Year by major domestic media in 2021 and 2022 ★ Selected as the Best Book of 2022 by Bookseed ★ Selected as the Best Book by Librarians at the National Library Conference in 2022 ★ Finalist for the Translation Category of the 62nd Korean Publishing Culture Award ★ Selected as the first science book by the Kim Young-ha Book Club ★ Recommended by Moon Jae-in, the 19th President of South Korea ★ Recommended by Choi Jae-cheon, Kang Yang-gu, Lee Won-young, Eun-yu, Jeong Se-rang, Ha Mi-na, Kim Kyeo-ul, Seo Mi-ran, Eom Ji-hye, Wi Da-hye, Kim Kyung-young ★ A book loved by writers that has inspired many The survival of the fittest is a misconception. The true winners of evolution are not the strongest, but the kindest. The evolution and future of Homo sapiens, who have thrived by wielding kindness as a weapon, seek the possibility of hope beyond an era of anger and hatred! How could dogs, which branched off from the same ancestors as wolves, increase their population while wolves are on the brink of extinction? Why could the gentler bonobos reproduce more successfully than the aggressive chimpanzees? Why did Homo sapiens survive instead of the physically superior Neanderthals? Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, the '21st-century heirs to Darwin', provide the answer: 'The Kind Survive'. They challenge the conventional wisdom that 'only the physically strongest survive' and argue that the last survivors are those who are kind and socially adept, while also capturing the tendencies of hatred and dehumanization towards out-groups that lie behind social skills. Their proposed solution is also based on social skills grounded in interaction and cooperation. Our species survived not by conquering more enemies, but by making more friends. Those who can read minds survive. "The ideal way to win the game of evolution is to maximize social skills that can foster cooperation." (p. 20) The concept of 'survival of the fittest' is not actually a phrase coined by Darwin. Darwin argued that one does not have to be the fittest to survive in the struggle for existence. Rather, it was biologists after Darwin who described nature as a "bleak place devoid of blood and tears." Hare and Woods transform 'Survival of the Fittest' into 'Survival of the Friendliest' as the original title of the book, stating that 'the kind survive' rather than 'the fittest'. The essential element of survival they speak of is 'social skills', which is the ability to cooperate and communicate with others who are different from oneself. This ability is most evident in our species, Homo sapiens, and Hare finds this ability in dogs, whose populations increase every year. He first conducts a gesture experiment with his dog Oreo, which is simple: placing two cups with food hidden in one and seeing if Oreo understands the gesture indicating where the food is. Surprisingly, Oreo quickly runs to find the food. After conducting several modified experiments with other dogs, Hare concludes that dogs understand the meaning of gestures. When the same experiment is conducted with bonobos and chimpanzees, the socially adept bonobos make eye contact with humans and understand the intent of the gaze to find the food, while the less social chimpanzees continue to fail in the experiment. The species that best understands the meaning of gestures and body language is humans. Human infants make eye contact with their parents and understand the intent of gestures and body language before they even start walking. Humans possess the ability of 'theory of mind', which allows them to read the minds of others. Through this, our species has evolved to communicate and cooperate with others in the most sophisticated way on Earth. By communicating with others through the mind, our species has evolved to regulate emotional responses and develop self-control, which is advantageous for survival. Be kind to those you meet for the first time. "For our species to survive and evolve, we must expand our definition of 'us'." (p. 36) Social skills are a common trait found in all domesticated species. Dogs have been domesticated, while wolves have not. Most people believe that humans intentionally bred wolves to become dogs, but dogs are actually a species that domesticated themselves. The friendly dogs that did not fear humans survived by eating human waste near hunter-gatherer settlements, and through breeding among these friendly dogs, they became more sociable animals. This is evidenced by various signs of domestication (such as lighter fur, floppy or smaller ears, smaller teeth, docility, smaller brains, and more frequent breeding cycles). These signs of domestication are also found in Homo sapiens, the only surviving human species, indicating that humans have also been domesticated. The socially skilled Homo sapiens expanded their social networks and achieved technological innovations, allowing them to obtain more food with improved technology. As population density increased, these groups further advanced their technology. However, Homo sapiens could not survive solely through technological innovation. Our species also created a new social category of 'others within the group'. Even if we have never met someone before, we recognize them as part of our group if they wear the same uniform or belong to the same club. We also consider others who share common social norms as part of our group and actively help each other. This social skill towards 'others within the group' creates group identity and binds others together as one 'family'. In this way, "our species expands the definition of group members", which is a trait not found in any other animal, including the highly inclusive bonobos. The aggression and hatred underlying social skills. "We are the most tolerant yet the most ruthless species on Earth." (p. 32) The increase in social skills towards in-groups solidifies biases against out-groups and can lead to the exclusion of out-group members. This is similar to how dogs bark at people who are not their owners. When an out-group that threatens one's in-group appears, the activity of the brain region responsible for 'theory of mind' slows down. When the ability to read others' minds diminishes, empathy disappears, and it becomes easy to dehumanize the other. Only aggression and hatred remain where social skills once flourished. Hare and Woods cite 'dehumanization' and 'mutual hostility' as examples of this phenomenon. Dehumanization refers to the tendency to liken people from different groups to 'subhuman apes'. According to research by Kteily, white people see Black and Asian people as closer to apes, while Hungarians view Romani people as such, and after a terrorist incident, British people view Muslims as closer to apes than themselves. Another issue underlying social skills is mutual hostility. When dehumanization occurs between groups, 'retaliatory dehumanization' occurs against the out-group that dehumanizes one's in-group, further intensifying intergroup conflict. This is a universal phenomenon occurring not only among races and nations but also within a single nation. Recently, the alternative right, consisting of people with high 'social dominance orientation' and 'right-wing authoritarian tendencies', has emerged globally. Those with social dominance orientation, who believe their in-group is superior, and those with right-wing authoritarian tendencies, who respond with hatred towards out-groups, are engaging in increasingly severe dehumanization based on this mutual hostility. The future of humanity at the crossroads of polarization. "Our lives should be evaluated not by how many enemies we have conquered, but by how many friends we have made." (p. 300) This book was written during the Trump era, which incited hatred to seize power. When Trump referred to the border wall as a "zoo fence to protect us from those beasts", Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar retaliated by saying, "All you see when a monkey climbs high is its butt." A few weeks after Trump's inauguration speech, radical leftist Antifa protesters gathered to protest against right-wing speakers. The protests, which attracted attention by igniting Molotov cocktails and breaking windows, seemed successful on the surface. However, according to American political scientist Erica Chenoweth, defining the opponent as an out-group and dehumanizing or engaging in violent protests against that group is "ineffective". As mentioned earlier, the 'human self-domestication hypothesis' suggests that when members of one group dehumanize an out-group, it provokes the worst violence from the other side. Comparing humans to animals or describing them in hateful language is one of the most dangerous forms of 'hate speech'. The 'human self-domestication hypothesis' also offers a solution to this issue. The answer lies in contact and interaction. The more frequent the interactions, the more the cycle of 'retaliatory dehumanization' that occurs when members of one's in-group feel threatened can be transformed into 'reciprocal humanization'. The fact that members of the alternative right have begun to change their attitudes towards minorities such as LGBTQ individuals, Black prisoners, immigrants, and homeless people as they come into contact with them, and that most Europeans who helped Jews survive during World War II had close relationships with Jews before the war, shows that contact and interaction can reduce dehumanization, exclusion, and hatred. Recently, Korean society seems to be witnessing a 'hellscape'. The criticism and dehumanization of opposing parties and groups are severe, and the degree of gender conflict is escalating. Progressive and conservative parties lead polarization by spewing hateful language. In public discourse, only harsh and sharp hateful words are heard. It feels as if we are witnessing one aspect of 'survival of the fittest', where one must dominate the other to survive. The message of self-improvement and self-preservation haunts schools and businesses like a ghost. But we now know that "violence begets more violence" and that being consumed by anger is ineffective. To survive, we must respond with kindness. Meeting, making eye contact, and listening to each other's stories. Opening opportunities for interaction and contact without excluding those who are 'different' from us. Just as past humanity has done, only the kind can survive.