The psychology of sharing: an evolutionary approach

[摘要] This thesis takes an evolutionary perspective on human psychology. Tothe extent that inherited tendencies shape behaviour, their design will befitted to the social environments prevailing as Homo sapiens evolved, inforaging groups, the nearest modem equivalent being hunter-gatherers.From ethnographies of hunter-gatherers, food-sharing and counterdominancewere identified as universal. Food-sharing was more thoroughthan is explicable purely by kinship or reciprocation; one functional effectwas to even out the supply of valuable high-variance food. In contrast withthe social systems of the other great apes, counter-dominance spreadinfluence widely, preventing the emergence of dominant individuals whocould obtain resources disproportionately. Potential paths for the evolution ofegalitarian tendencies are discussed.Two falsifiable hypotheses were generated from this perspective. First,sharing will facilitate risk-taking. The predicted effect was confirmed at highrisk levels, similar to those faced by hunters. Given that during evolution riskwas reduced primarily by social means, social as well as rational factors aretreated by the evolved brain as relevant to risky decisions. It is argued thatthis result may suggest a new perspective on the Group Polarisationexperiments.The second hypothesis tested was that an egalitarian environment willproduce beneficial effects on individual and social behaviour. The datacollected were consistent with the hypothesis: a comparison between threeItalian towns showed that measures of health (including cardiovascularmortality), education, social involvement, crime and social perceptions weresignificantly more positive where co-operatives employed a larger percentageof the population.The evolutionary perspective showed its value as a means of generatingnovel testable hypotheses.

[发布机构] University:University of St Andrews;Department:Psychology & Neuroscience (School of)

[效力级别] Behavior evolution

[关键词] Evolutionary psychology;Behavior evolution