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Tackling group-level traits by starting at the start

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2014

Maciej Chudek  and
Joseph Henrich
Maciej Chudek
Affiliation:
School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. Maciej.Chudek@asu.eduhttp://abcs.asu.edu/Maciek/
Joseph Henrich
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada. joseph.henrich@gmail.comhttp://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich
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Abstract

We agree that emergent group-level properties are important; however, we disagree that current approaches, especially culture-gene coevolutionary (CGC) approaches, have neglected them. We explain how CGC helps demystify the tumult of humans' group-level complexity by “starting at the start,” and why (a) assuming undifferentiated individuals and (b) focusing on cooperation are actually powerful tools to this end.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , June 2014 , pp. 256 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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