Dawkins, Richard (1941- )

British zoologist whose book The Selfish Gene 1976 popularized the theories of sociobiology (social behaviour in humans and animals in the context of evolution). In The Blind Watchmaker 1986 he explained the modern theory of evolution. Dawkins was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and educated at Oxford, where from 1975 he held academic posts. In The Selfish Gene he argued that genes - not individuals, populations, or species - are the driving force of evolution. He suggested an analogous system of cultural transmission in human societies, and proposed the term 'mimeme', abbreviated to 'meme', as the unit of such a scheme. He considered the idea of God to be a meme with a high survival value. His contentions were further developed in The Extended Phenotype 1982, primarily an academic work.