Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T18:14:19.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Machiavellian” Intelligence as a Basis for the Evolution of Cooperative Dispositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2004

JOHN ORBELL ,
TOMONORI MORIKAWA ,
JASON HARTWIG ,
JAMES HANLEY  and
NICHOLAS ALLEN
JOHN ORBELL
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
TOMONORI MORIKAWA
Affiliation:
Waseda University
JASON HARTWIG
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
JAMES HANLEY
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Springfield
NICHOLAS ALLEN
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How to promote cooperative behavior is classically solved by incentives that lead self-interested individuals in socially desirable directions, but by now well-established laboratory results show that people often do act cooperatively, even at significant cost to themselves. These results suggest that cooperative dispositions might be an evolved part of human nature. Yet such dispositions appear inconsistent with the “Machiavellian intelligence” paradigm, which develops the idea that our brains have evolved, in substantial part, for capturing adaptive advantage from within-group competition. We use simulation to address the evolutionary relationship between basic Machiavellian capacities and cooperative dispositions. Results show that selection on such capacities can (1) permit the spread of cooperative dispositions even in cooperation-unfriendly worlds and (2) support transitions to populations with high mean cooperative dispositions. We distinguish between “rationality in action” and “rationality in design”—the adaptive fit between a design attribute of an animal and its environment. The combination of well-developed Machiavellian intelligence, modest mistrust, and high cooperative dispositions appears to be a rational design for the brains of highly political animals such as ourselves.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 98 , Issue 1 , February 2004 , pp. 1 - 15
Copyright
© 2004 by the American Political Science Association

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

Alchian Armen. 1950 “Uncertainty, Evolution and Economic Theory”. Journal of Political Economy 58 (3 June): 211– 21.Google Scholar
Axelrod Robert. 1981 “Emergence of Cooperation among Egoists.” American Political Science Review 75 (June): 306– 18.Google Scholar
Axelrod Robert. 1984 The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Boehm Christopher. 1997 “Egalitarian Behavior and the Evolution of Political Intelligence.” In Machiavellian Intelligence II, ed. R. W. Byrne and A. Whiten. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 341– 64.
Bowlby J. 1969 Attachment and Loss. New York: Basic Books.
Boyd Robert, and Richerson Peter J. 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Boyd Robert, Samuel Bowles Herbert Gintis, and Richerson Peter J. 2003 “The Evolution of Altruistic Punishment.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1000 (March 11): 3531.Google Scholar
Brothers Leslie. 1997 Friday's Footprint: How Society Shapes the Human Mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Byrne Richard W., and Whiten Andrew, eds. 1988 Machiavellian Intelligence; Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans. New York: New York: Oxford University Press.
Camerer C. F., and Thaler R. 1995 “Anomalies—Ultimatums, Dictators, and Manners.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 9 (Spring): 209– 19.Google Scholar
Caporael Linnda, John Orbell Robyn Dawes, and Alphons van de Kragt 1989 “Selfishness Examined: Cooperation in the Absence of Egoistic Incentives.” Behavioral and Brain Science 12 (December): 683– 99.Google Scholar
Daly Martin, and Wilson Margo. 1999 “Human Evolutionary Psychology and Animal Behavior.” Animal Behaviour 57 (March): 509– 19.Google Scholar
Dawes Robyn. 1975 “Formal Models of Dilemmas in Social Decision-Making.” In Human Judgment and Decision Processes, ed. M. F. Kaplan and S. Schwartz. New York: Academic Press, 87–108.
Dawkins Richard. 1976 The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dawkins Richard, and Krebs John R. 1978 “Animal Signals: Information or Manipulation?” In Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, ed. J. R. Krebs and N. B. Davies. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, 282–309.
de Waal Frans. 2001 The Ape and the Sushi Master; Cultural Reflections by a Primatologist. New York: Basic Books.
Dennett Daniel. 1995 Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Dobzhansky Theodosius. 1973 “Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution.” American Biology Teacher 35 (March): 125– 29.Google Scholar
Dunbar Robin I. M., Knight Chris, and Power Camilla, eds. 1999 The Evolution of Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Field Alexander J. 2001 Altruistically Inclined? The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity. Edited by T. Kuran, Economics, Cognition, and Society. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Frohlich N, and Oppenheimer J. 1996 “Experiencing Impartiality to Invoke Fairness in the N-Pd: Some Experimental Results.” Public Choice 86 (January): 117– 35.Google Scholar
Fukuyama Francis. 1995 Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press.
Gigerenzer Gerd. 1997 “The Modularity of Social Intelligence.” In Machiavellian Intelligence II: Extensions and Evaluations, ed. A. Whiten and R. W. Byrne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 264–88.
Green Donald P., and Shapiro Ian. 1994 Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory; A Critique of Applications in Political Science. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hamilton W. D. 1964 “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour. I and II.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7 (July): 1– 52.Google Scholar
Hardin Garrett. 1977 The Limits of Altruism; An Ecologist's View of Survival. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hardin Russell. 1991 “Trusting Persons, Trusting Institutions.” In The Strategy of Choice, ed. R. J. Zeckhauser. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 185–209.
Hobbes Thomas. [1651]1947 Leviathan. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Humphrey Nicholas K. 1976 “The Social Function of Intellect.” In Growing Points in Ethology, ed. P. P. G. Bateson and R. A. Hinde. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 303–17.
Jolly Allison. 1966 “Lemur Social Behavior and Primate Intelligence.” Science 153 (July): 501– 6.Google Scholar
Mithen Steven. 1996 The Prehistory of the Mind; The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. London: Thames & Hudson.
Nesse Randolph M. 2001 Evolution and the Capacity for Commitment. ed. K. S. Cook, M. Levi and R. Hardin, The Russell Sage Foundation Series on Trust. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Olson Mancur. 1965 The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Orbell John, and Dawes Robyn 1993 “Social Welfare, Cooperators' Advantage and the Option of Not Playing the Game.” American Sociological Review 58 (December): 787– 800.Google Scholar
Orbell John, Robyn Dawes, and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea. 1994 “Trust, Social Categories and Individuals: The Case of Gender.” Motivation and Emotion 18 (June): 109– 28.Google Scholar
Orbell John, Randy Simmons Robyn Dawes, and Alphons van de Kragt. 1986 “Organizing Groups for Collective Action.” American Political Science Review 80 (December): 1171– 85.Google Scholar
Orbell John, Morikawa Tomonori, and Allen Nicholas 2002 “The Evolution of Political Intelligence: Simulation Results.” British Journal of Political Science 32 (October): 613– 39.Google Scholar
Ostrom Elinor. 1998 “A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action.” American Political Science Review 92 (March): 1– 22.Google Scholar
Ostrom Elinor, Walker James, and Gardner Roy 1992 “Covenants with and without the Sword: Self-Governance Is Possible.” American Political Science Review 86 (June): 404– 17.Google Scholar
Putnam Robert. 2000 Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rapoport Anatol, Guyer Melvin J, and Gordon David G. 1976 The 2×2 Game. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Reeve Hudson Kern. 2000 “Multi-Level Selection and Human Cooperation.” Evolution and Human Behavior 21 (January): 65– 72.Google Scholar
Simon Herbert. 1985 “Human Nature in Politics; The Dialogue of Political Science with Psychology.” American Political Science Review June (2): 293– 304.Google Scholar
Sober Elliott, and Wilson David Sloan 1998 Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tinbergen N. 1963 “On Aims and Methods of Ethology.” Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Zoologie 20: 410– 33.Google Scholar
Tooby John, and Cosmides Leda 1990 “The Past Explains the Present: Emotional Adaptations and the Structure of Ancestral Environments.” Ethology and Sociobiology 11 (4–5): 375– 424.Google Scholar
Tooby John, and Cosmides Leda 1992 “The Psychological Foundations of Culture.” In The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, ed. J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby. New York: Oxford University Press, 19–136.
Trivers Robert. 1971 “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” Quarterly Review of Biology 46 (March): 35– 57.Google Scholar
Trivers Robert. 1985 Social Evolution. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.
Whiten Andrew, and Byrne Richard W., eds. 1997 Machiavellian Intelligence II: Extensions and Evaluations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Williams George C. 1966 Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wynn Thomas. 2002 “Archaeology and Cognitive Evolution.” Behavioral and Brain Science 25 (June): 389– 438.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.