Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T04:22:27.822Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human cooperation shows the distinctive signatures of adaptations to small-scale social life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

John Tooby  and
Leda Cosmides
John Tooby
Affiliation:
Center for Evolutionary Psychology, and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106. tooby@anth.ucsb.eduwww.cep.ucsb.edu
Leda Cosmides
Affiliation:
Center for Evolutionary Psychology, and Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106. cosmides@psych.ucsb.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The properties of individual carbon atoms allow them to chain into complex molecules of immense length. They are not limited to structures involving only a few atoms. The design features of our evolved neural adaptations appear similarly extensible. Individuals with forager brains can link themselves together into unprecedentedly large cooperative structures without the need for large group-beneficial modifications to evolved human design. Roles need only be intelligible to our social program logic, and judged better than alternatives.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e54
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boyer, P. & Petersen, M. B. (2011) The naturalness of (many) social institutions. Journal of Institutional Economics 8(1):1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delton, A. W., Krasnow, M. M., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2011) Evolution of direct reciprocity under uncertainty can explain human generosity in one-shot encounters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108(32):13335–40. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1102131108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krasnow, M. M., Cosmides, L., Pedersen, E. J. & Tooby, J. (2012) What are punishment and reputation for? PLoS ONE 7(9):e45662. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
List, J. (2007) On the interpretation of giving in dictator games. Journal of Political Economy 115(3):482–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, E. J., Kurzban, R. & McCullough, M. E. (2013) Do humans really punish altruistically? A closer look. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280(1758):e20122723. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2723. Online paper available at: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1758/20122723.Google ScholarPubMed
Petersen, M. B., Sznycer, D., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2012) Who deserves help? Evolutionary psychology, social emotions, and public opinion about welfare. Political Psychology 33(3):395–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, M. B., Sznycer, D., Sell, A., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2013) The ancestral logic of politics: Upper-body strength regulates men's assertion of self-interest over economic redistribution. Psychological Science 24(7):1098–103.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pinker, S. (2010) The cognitive niche: Coevolution of intelligence, sociality, and language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107(Suppl. 2):8993–99. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914630107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheskin, M., Wynn, K. & Bloom, P. (2014) Anti-equality: Social comparison in young children. Cognition 130(2):152–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2010) Groups in mind: The coalitional roots of war and morality. In: Human morality and sociality: Evolutionary and comparative perspectives, ed. Hogh-Olesen, H., pp. 91–234. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Tooby, J. & DeVore, I. (1987) The reconstruction of hominid behavioral evolution through strategic modeling. In: The evolution of human behavior: Primate models, ed. Kinzey, W. G., pp. 183–237. State University of New York Press.Google Scholar