We often hear this word and say this. Normaly, it implys the people who are lazy or dont cooperate to team work….etc. So, Are these people really non-productive to our society?

I read an interesting reserch about The work of Ants in which they compare two colonies about the result of their work.

One colony has 90% of individuals who never fail to follow up the pheromone left by those ants who found out the food. So to speak, its a society which contain ‘useful’ individuals.

To the contarary another colony has 50% of individulas who dont follow up that pheromone regulary. This time, its another society which contain ‘Useless’ individuals.

Then they put various foods in different locations around each colony. I mean these two colonies conditions were same. So, which could gather those foods faster?

Surprisingly,the later one got better results in all 5 times they tested.

Interesting. Why? The reason was this: Since  those ‘useful’ individuals of first colony never fail to follow up the first ants which found out a food, there is less possibility to find out another foods. On the other hand, those ‘useless’ individuals of the later one can find out those foods in new locations becasuse of their not following up the pheromone strictly. And these ‘useless’ individuals leave their pheromone for those minority ‘useful’ individuals of their colony who follow up very well.

The conclusion was that. The colony which has good percentage of  ‘useless’ and ‘useful’ individuals produce good result.

How is the case of human society?