Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:37:24.206Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ultrasociality without group selection: Possible, reasonable, and likely

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Max M. Krasnow
Max M. Krasnow*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. krasnow@fas.harvard.eduhttp://projects.iq.harvard.edu/epl/people/max-krasnow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is uncontroversial that humans are extremely social, and that cultures have changed over time. But, the evidence shows that much of the social psychology underlying these phenomena (1) predates the agricultural transition, and (2) is not the result of group selection. Instead, this psychology appears intricately designed to capture social gains when possible in our complex ancestral social ecology.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e104
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

Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (1989) Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, part II: Case study: A computational theory of social exchange. Ethology and Sociobiology 10:51–97.Google Scholar
Delton, A. W., Cosmides, L., Guemo, M., Robertson, T. E. & Tooby, J. (2012) The psychosemantics of free riding: Dissecting the architecture of a moral concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102(6):1252–70. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037/a0027026 Google Scholar
Krasnow, M. M., Delton, A. W., Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2015) Group cooperation without group selection: Modest punishment can recruit much cooperation. PLoS ONE 10(4):e0124561. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124561 Google Scholar
Kurzban, R. & Neuberg, S. (2005) Managing ingroup and outgroup relationships. In: The handbook of evolutionary psychology, ed. Buss, D., pp. 653–75. Wiley.Google Scholar
Lieberman, D., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2007) The architecture of human kin detection. Nature 44:727–31.Google Scholar
Sugiyama, L. S., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2002) Cross-cultural evidence of cognitive adaptations for social exchange among the Shiwiar of Ecuadorian Amazonia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99(17):11537–42. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.122352999 Google Scholar
Thomas, K. A., DeScioli, P., Haque, O. S. & Pinker, S. (2014) The psychology of coordination and common knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 107(4):657–76. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1037/a0037037 Google Scholar
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (1990) On the universality of human nature and the uniqueness of the individual: The role of genetics and adaptation. Journal of Personality 58(1):17–67. Available at: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1990.tb00907.x Google Scholar
Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (1996) Friendship and the Banker's paradox: Other pathways to the evolution of adaptations for altruism. Proceedings of the British Academy 88:119–43.Google Scholar