Evolutionary Advantage of guilt.

I think you pretty much answered the question yourself in the OP. I'm not an expert in psychology or sociology, but thinking intuitively it seems obvious to me that humans are very dependant on each other as a species. As individuals we're neither the strongest or fastest animals, so we need to work together as a group.Groups need some level of trust to work, and untrustworthy individuals are likely to be "unfit" from an evolutionary standpoint because they will be shunned in the group. This means that individuals who are capable of recognising when they have done something wrong will have an advantage over those who can't recognise this, as they can make amends and make sure they don't do it again.I'd be interested in knowing wether other species exhibit signs of guilt or remorse. If what I said is anything close to accurate then I expect that species that have complex social networks such as apes/monkeys or dolphins will be more likely to display it than solitary animals. Does anyone know of any such studies, and what the results are?Again i'm no expert in this so my explanation is just an educated (I hope) guess

I'm not too sure what the creationists could say on the subject. Obviously they won't think guilt is an evolutionary trait anymore than they think anything else is, but the only way they could argue against it is to say that guilt isn't useful to us. I'd be surprised if they think that though.

Well i'm certain that what makes a specific individual feel guilty will be based on societal factors, but the actual chemistry of guilt in the brain will be totally seperate to that. I think it is this aspect that the OP was getting at, then once the feeling is in place in the brain it can then be utilised by the society.

Yes, i'm sure that they would say exactly that. I would if I was one. I wasn't quite clear with what I meant though I meant to imply that there would be little a creationist could do to make guilt look bad for evolution, because the advantages for it are clear imho.

Sorry, my bad explanation again. What I meant was the first emergence of the feeling in the brain wouldn't be forced to appear from societal pressure (or would it?), it would come from some random mutation and then be formed by the societal pressure into whatever form it took.

Definately a question I'd be interested in finding the answer to. I'm not sure wether sheep or fish are deemed as having 'societies'. I know they live in groups, but are the interactions between individuals complicated enough to class it as a society? Maybe the sheep will surprise me Wolves I would think are closer. They have a hierarchy and each indivudal has their place. I would think apes/monkeys would be most likely to exhibit guilt, and maybe dolphins or whales. I'll have a quick scan on the internet, but I no longer have access to any journals so I'll probably miss all the interesting stuff. Well i'm sure the area of the brain where the feelings originate can be pinpointed fairly easily. I have no idea if it's possible to find a particular gene yet, i'll leave that for someone more knowledgeable to answer.[TheLiteralist]Can evolutionists distinguish between fossils of the non-guilt-feeling organisms and the guilt-feeling organisms? Or can they say, "Oh, guilt began to evolve in the Ordovician?"[/qs]Well i'd be very surprised if we can look at a fossil and determine its guilt potential, but if the gene that codes for guilt can be found i'm sure theres a lot of information that can be gleaned by studying lifeforms alive today.