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Cultural Group Selection Plays an Essential Role in Explaining Human Cooperation: a Sketch of the Evidence

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BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2016), Page 1 of 68 doi:10.1017/S0140525X1400106X, e30 Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence Peter Richerson Emily K. Newton Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California– Department of Psychology, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA Davis, Davis, CA 95616 94901 [email protected] [email protected] http://emilyknewton.weebly.com/ www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/richerson/richerson.htm Nicole Naar Ryan Baldini Department of Anthropology, University of California–Davis, Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616 Davis, CA 95616 [email protected] https://sites.google.com/site/ryanbaldini/ [email protected] Adrian V. Bell Lesley Newson Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California– [email protected] http://adrianbell.wordpress.com/ Davis, Davis, CA 95616 [email protected] [email protected] Kathryn Demps https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lesley_Newson/ Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID 83725 [email protected] Cody Ross http://sspa.boisestate.edu/anthropology/faculty-and-staff/kathryn- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501 demps/ [email protected] http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xSugEskAAAAJ Karl Frost Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616 Paul E. Smaldino [email protected] https://sites.google.com/site/karljosephfrost/ Department of Anthropology, University of California–Davis, Davis, CA 95616 [email protected] http://www.smaldino.com/ Vicken Hillis Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California– Timothy M. Waring Davis, Davis, CA 95616 School of Economics, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469 [email protected] http://vickenhillis.weebly.com [email protected] http://timwaring.wordpress.com/ Sarah Mathew Matthew Zefferman School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tempe, AZ 85287 Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 [email protected] http://www.sarahmathew.net/Site/Home.html [email protected] http://www.zefferman.com/ Abstract: Human cooperation is highly unusual. We live in large groups composed mostly of non-relatives. Evolutionists have proposed a number of explanations for this pattern, including cultural group selection and extensions of more general processes such as reciprocity, kin selection, and multi-level selection acting on genes. Evolutionary processes are consilient; they affect several different empirical domains, such as patterns of behavior and the proximal drivers of that behavior. In this target article, we sketch the evidence from five domains that bear on the explanatory adequacy of cultural group selection and competing hypotheses to explain human cooperation. Does cultural transmission constitute an inheritance system that can evolve in a Darwinian fashion? Are the norms that underpin institutions among the cultural traits so transmitted? Do we observe sufficient variation at the level of groups of considerable size for group selection to be a plausible process? Do human groups compete, and do success and failure in competition depend upon cultural variation? Do we observe adaptations for cooperation in humans that most plausibly arose by cultural group selection? If the answer to one of these questions is “no,” then we must look to other hypotheses. We present evidence, including quantitative evidence, that the answer to all of the questions is “yes” and argue that we must take the cultural group selection hypothesis seriously. If culturally transmitted systems of rules (institutions) that limit individual deviance organize cooperation in human societies, then it is not clear that any extant alternative to cultural group selection can be a complete explanation. Keywords: competition; culture; evolution; group selection; heritable variation; institutions; norms © Cambridge University Press 2016 0140-525X/16 1 http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 11 May 2016 IP address: 129.49.5.35 Richerson et al.: Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation how they solve the collective action problem in large- PETER RICHERSON is Distinguished Professor Emeri- scale warfare. She currently is spearheading a three- tus in the Department of Environmental Science and year field study among the Turkana, examining the evo- Policy at the University of California, Davis. He was lutionary foundations of cooperation and moral trained as an entomologist and aquatic ecologist in the judgments. 1960s and acquired an interest in cultural evolution through teaching an interdisciplinary course on human EMILY K. NEWTON is an Assistant Professor of Psychol- ecology in the early 1970s. His work includes two ogy at the Dominican University of California. She books: Culture and the Evolutionary Process (University studies the influence of social learning on the develop- of Chicago Press, 1985) and Not By Genes Alone: How ment of psychological understanding and prosocial Culture Transformed Human Evolution (University of behavior in young children. Her work has been pub- Chicago Press, 2005), coauthored with Robert Boyd. lished in Developmental Psychology and Infancy. RYAN BALDINI is an alumnus of the Graduate Group in NICOLE NAAR is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at Ecology at the University of California, Davis. His re- the University of California, Davis. Her research search focuses on human behavioral evolution, gene- focuses on how community diversity affects fisheries culture coevolution, and life history theory. He is cur- management in Mexico, using theory and methods rently using mathematical models to study rapid life from cultural evolution, human behavioral ecology, history evolution in historical human populations. and political ecology. ADRIAN V. BELL is Assistant Professor of Anthropology LESLEY NEWSON is a Research Associate in the Depart- at the University of Utah. He is primarily interested in ment of Environmental Science and Policy at the Uni- the cause and consequences of migration on human versity of California, Davis. She is interested in the social evolution. Using theoretical and empirical ap- continuing evolution of values that occurs after popula- proaches motivated by cultural evolutionary theory, he tions restructure and its members develop wider and fi conducts eldwork among the Tongan people of the shallower social networks. South Pacific and migrant communities in the United States. CODY ROSS is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Santa Fe In- stitute and is the author of several publications in the KATHRYN DEMPS is an Assistant Professor of Anthro- area of molecular anthropology, gene-cultural coevolu- pology at Boise State University. She specializes in tion, and human behavioral ecology. He is currently human behavioral ecology, particularly resource extrac- working on projects related to the inter-generational tion. She is interested in how people learn about and transmission of relational, embodied, and material exploit local environments and how these behaviors wealth. change over time. PAUL E. SMALDINO is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the KARL FROST is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at the Uni- Department of Anthropology at the University of Cali- versity of California, Davis. He researches the cultural fornia, Davis. His research focuses on how organization- evolution of prosociality via religion and ritual practices, al patterns emerge in humans and other social using behavioral experiments, gene-culture coevolution organisms, with perspectives drawn from psychology, fi models, and eld research in Canada looking at environ- evolutionary ecology, and the social sciences. He is par- mental activism in the face of the tar sands oil industry ticularly interested in the use of computer simulations to and an antagonistic government. He also directs the uncover principles of social dynamics and evolution. He Body Research Physical Theater and is interested in is the author of a previous BBS target article, “The cul- cross-cultural exchange of theater practice as theater an- tural evolution of emergent group-level traits,” pub- – thropology and arts science fusion. lished in 2014. VICKEN HILLIS is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the TIMOTHY M. WARING is an Assistant Professor of social- Department of Environmental Science and Policy at ecological systems modeling at the School of Econom- the University of California, Davis. He received his ics, University of Maine. He studies the evolution of Ph.D. in Ecology (emphasis on Environmental Policy human culture and cooperation in environmental dilem- and Human Ecology) at UC Davis. His research mas. He leads a national network on evolutionary ap- applies cultural evolutionary theory to environmental proaches to sustainability, funded through two behavior and decision-making. He has examined agri- working groups at the National Institute for Mathemat- cultural sustainability in California and intergenerational ical and Biological Synthesis and the National Socio-En- cooperation using behavioral experiments in the lab. His vironmental Synthesis Center. He was awarded a fi work, combining theoretical, experimental, and eld- National Science Foundation CAREER grant for his re- based approaches, has been published in the Proceed-
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