Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T10:04:19.112Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

SPEAKERS ARE HONEST BECAUSE HEARERS ARE VIGILANT REPLY TO KOURKEN MICHAELIAN1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2013

Dan Sperber
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In ‘The Evolution of Testimony: Receiver Vigilance, Speaker Honesty and the Reliability of Communication,’ Kourken Michaelian questions the basic tenets of our article ‘Epistemic Vigilance’ (Sperber et al. 2010). Here I defend against Michaelian's criticisms the view that epistemic vigilance plays a major role in explaining the evolutionary stability of communication and that the honesty of speakers and the reliability of their testimony are, to a large extent, an effect of hearers' vigilance.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 61 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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.)

Footnotes

1

I am grateful to Fabrice Clément, Christophe Heintz, Olivier Mascaro, Hugo Mercier, Gloria Origgi, and Deirdre Wilson for their suggestions and comments.

References

REFERENCES

Baumard, Nicolas, André, Jean-Baptiste, and Sperber, Dan. 2013. ‘A Mutualistic Approach to Morality.’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36: 59–122.Google Scholar
Clément, Fabrice, Koenig, Melissa, and Harris, Paul. 2004. ‘The Ontogeny of Trust.’ Mind and Language, 19: 360–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, Richard, and Krebs, John. 1978. ‘Animal Signals: Information or Manipulation.’ In Krebs, John and Davies, N. B. (eds), Behavioural Ecology, pp. 282–309, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Daniel, Tafarodi, Romin, and Malone, Patrick. 1993. ‘You Can't Not Believe Everything you Read.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65: 221–33.Google Scholar
Gilsenan, Michael. 1976. ‘Lying, Honor and Contradiction.’ In Kapferer, B. (ed.), Transaction and Meaning, pp. 191–219. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues.Google Scholar
Gintis, Herbert, Bowles, Samuel, Boyd, Rob, and Fehr, Ernst. 2003. ‘Explaining Altruistic Behavior in Humans.’ Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(3): 153–72.Google Scholar
Heintz, Christophe. 2006. ‘Web Search Engines and Distributed Assessment Systems.’ Pragmatics and Cognition, 14(2): 387–409.Google Scholar
Koenig, Melissa, and Harris, Paul. 2007. ‘The Basis of Epistemic Trust: Reliable Testimony or Reliable Sources?’ Episteme, 4: 264–84.Google Scholar
Krebs, John, and Dawkins, Richard. 1984. ‘Animal Signals: Mind-Reading and Manipulation.’ In Krebs, John and Davies, N. B. (eds), Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, pp. 380–402. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Levine, Timothy, Kim, Rachel, and Hamel, Lauren. 2010. ‘People Lie for a Reason: Three Experiments Documenting the Principle of Veracity.’ Communication Research Reports 27(4): 271–85.Google Scholar
Mascaro, Olivier, and Sperber, Dan. 2009. ‘The Moral, Epistemic, and Mindreading Components of Children's Vigilance Towards Deception.’ Cognition 112(3): 367–80.Google Scholar
Mercier, Hugo, and Sperber, Dan. 2011. ‘Why do Humans Reason? Arguments for an Argumentative Theory.’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34: 57–11.Google Scholar
Origgi, Gloria. 2012. ‘Epistemic Injustice and Epistemic Trust.’ Social Epistemology. 26(2): 221–35.Google Scholar
Origgi, Gloria, and Sperber, Dan. 2000. ‘Evolution, Communication and the Proper Function of Language.’ In Carruthers, Peter and Chamberlain, Andrew (eds), Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shalvi, S., Eldar, O., and Bereby-Meyer, Y. 2012. ‘Honesty Requires Time (and Lack of Justifications).’ Psychological Science. 23(10): 1264–70.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan. 1996. Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Baumard, Nicolas. 2012. ‘Moral Reputation: An Evolutionary and Cognitive Approach.’ Mind and Language, 27(5): 485–518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Claidière, Nicolas. 2006. ‘Why Modeling Cultural Evolution is Still Such a Challenge.’ Biological Theory, 1(1): 20–2.Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, and Wilson, Deirdre. 1995. Relevance: Communication and Cognition, 2nd edn.Oxford: Blackwell (1st edn 1986).Google Scholar
Sperber, Dan, Clément, Fabrice, Heintz, Christophe, Mascaro, Olivier, Mercier, Hugo, Origgi, Gloria, and Wilson, Deirdre. 2010. ‘Epistemic Vigilance.’ Mind and Language 25(4): 359–93.Google Scholar
Tennie, Claudio, Frith, Uta, and Frith, Chris. 2010. ‘Reputation Management in the Age of the World-Wide Web.’ Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14(11): 482–8.Google Scholar
Willis, Janine, and Todorov, Alexander. 2006. ‘First Impressions: Making up your Mind After a 100-ms Exposure to a Face.’ Psychological Science, 17: 592–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, Deirdre, and Sperber, Dan. 2012. Meaning and Relevance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vanderbilt, Kimberly, Lio, David, and Heyman, Gail. 2011. ‘The Development of Distrust.’ Child Development, 82(5): 1372–80.Google Scholar