Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T05:01:39.516Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The burden of proof for a cultural group selection account

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Pat Barclay  and
Daniel Brian Krupp
Pat Barclay
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada. barclayp@uoguelph.cawww.patbarclay.com
Daniel Brian Krupp
Affiliation:
Program in Evolution and Governance, One Earth Future, Broomfield, CO 80021. dbkrupp@saltlab.orghttp://www.saltlab.org Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Richerson et al. establish cultural group selection as a plausible force in human social evolution. However, they do not demonstrate its causal precedence for any trait, let alone its “essentialness.” To do so, they must show that a particular group trait was caused by cultural transmission, and directly caused differences in group fitness.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e33
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

Barclay, P. (2012) Proximate and ultimate causes of strong reciprocity and punishment. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 35(1):16–17.Google Scholar
Barclay, P. & Van Vugt, M. (2015) The evolutionary psychology of human prosociality: Adaptations, mistakes, and byproducts. In: Oxford handbook of prosocial behavior, ed. Schroeder, D. & Graziano, W., pp. 37–60. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Birch, J. & Okasha, S. (2015) Kin selection and its critics. BioScience 65:22–32.Google Scholar
Daly, M. & Wilson, M. (2010) Cultural inertia, economic incentives, and the persistence of “Southern violence.” In: Evolution, culture, and the human mind, ed. Schaller, M., Norenzayan, A., Heine, S., Yamagishi, T. & Kameda, T., pp. 229–41. Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Gardner, A. & Grafen, A. (2009) Capturing the superorganism: A formal theory of group adaptation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22:659–71.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. (1975) Innate social aptitudes of man: An approach from evolutionary genetics. In: Biosocial Anthropology, ed. Fox, R., pp. 133–53. Malaby Press.Google Scholar
Markus, H. R. & Kitayama, S. (1991) Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review 98:224–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, J. A. R. (2011) Group selection and kin selection: Formally equivalent approaches. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 26:325–32. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.04.008.Google Scholar
Nisbett, R. E. & Cohen, D. (1996) Culture of Honor: The psychology of violence in the South. Westview Press.Google Scholar
Okasha, S. (2015) The relation between kin and multi-level selection: An approach using causal graphs. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. doi: 10.1093/bjps/axu047.Google Scholar
Okasha, S. & Paternotte, C. (2012) Group adaptation, formal Darwinism and contextual analysis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 25:1127–39.Google Scholar
Price, G. R. (1972) Extensions of covariance selection mathematics. Annals of Human Genetics 35:485–90.Google Scholar
Queller, D. C. (1992) Quantitative genetics, inclusive fitness, and group selection. American Naturalist 139:540–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richerson, P. J. & Boyd, R. (2005) Not by genes alone: How culture transformed human evolution. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
West, S. A., El Mouden, C. & Gardner, A. (2011) Sixteen common misconceptions about the evolution of cooperation in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior 32(4):231–62. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.08.001.Google Scholar
Williams, G. C. (1966) Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Yamagishi, T., Hashimoto, H. & Schug, J. (2008) Preferences versus strategies as explanations for culture-specific behavior. Psychological Science 19:579–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed