Psychology 3228 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Reciprocal Altruism, Stone Age, Psych

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3228
• Professor: Caroline Strang

Document Summary

Kin are more likely to help each other than non-kin. Further studies revealed kinship was more important than social status, political leanings etc. for forced choices about helping. To evolve: cost of act to giver should be lower than benefit to receiver. Individual recognition and memory: long lifespan and repeated interactions. Many human cooperative acts have hallmarks of reciprocity: social interaction with known individuals, typically cost to giver low, benefit to receiver high. 40 percent of calories came from meat: they hunted in two-man teams, successful hunters share food with their respective families. Boasting of hunting is seen as shameful: meat sharing is likely due to kin selection and reciprocity. World war i: entrenched troops at stalemates develop shoot to miss tactics, forgiving but retaliatory, action by officers required to disrupt cooperation among enemies. Ingroup bias: tendency to favor those perceived as belonging to our own group, promoted through, kin selection, reciprocal conditions.