[The28thDuck]

I don’t think it’s about being equal. To think about it selfishly, then we would have nothing to gain from it. Friendship, like many relationships, is about the unique equilibrium struck that makes you both feel and be better, more than if you had just been an individual. It’s about strengthening each others weaknesses. Rising tide lifts all boats

[thomquaid]

I think it is about that. Many of the social behaviors didnt evolve individually, and the social behaviors that end up selected for produced tribes. The group can be more fit than the sum of its parts, and both sides benefit from friendship because two people are about three times as strong working together vs the twice as strong you would expect.

[chasil]

No, it is not about that.

All of our behaviors were ruthlessly selected by evolution in the 60k years since we emerged as a species.

The behaviors were never about the individual. We kept them because they reproduced.