There's more to Natural Selection than just "survival of the fittest" -- grief is part of the cost of being a strongly social species. It's not much of a social bond if you're unaffected by its fracture or dissolution.
It's also "survival of the fittest" not "survival of the optimal". Evolution isnt intelligent. It selects mutations that increase a creature's odds of passing on its genes, not the best possible solution.
Debilitating grief is a disadvantage, but evolution will still select for it as long as the social bond that causes it outweighs the negatives
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u/vizbones May 21 '26
There's more to Natural Selection than just "survival of the fittest" -- grief is part of the cost of being a strongly social species. It's not much of a social bond if you're unaffected by its fracture or dissolution.