Behavioral Bio & Cultural Evolution

Characterization of Pan social systems reveals in-group/out-group distinction and out-group tolerance in bonobos

September 7, 2022

Abstract: "Human between-group interactions are highly variable, ranging from violent to tolerant and affiliative. Tolerance between groups is linked to our unique capacity for large-scale cooperation and cumulative culture, but its evolutionary origins are understudied. In chimpanzees, one of our closest living relatives, predominantly hostile between-group interactions impede cooperation and information flow across groups. In contrast, in our other closest living relative, the bonobo, tolerant between-group associations are observed. However, as these associations can...

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2018 Sep 27

HEB Colloquium: "Third Party Monitoring and the Evolution of Reciprocity"

4:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

Haller Hall, Geological Museum Room 102, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

Professor Robert Boyd

Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University

 

Cooperation based on reciprocity is undermined by perception errors, mistakes that cause interacting individuals to disagree about past behavior. Strategies like Win-Stay-Lose-Shift (WSLS) and Generous Tit for Tat (GTFT) can reestablish cooperation following a perception error but only when errors arise infrequently. Here I introduce a strategy that relies on third-party arbitration to resolve disagreements, and show that...

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Joseph Henrich Headshot

Dr. Joseph Henrich

Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology
Director of Undergraduate Studies

Joseph Henrich's research focuses on evolutionary approaches to psychology, decision-making and culture, and includes...

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Office Location:
Museum of Comparative Zoology 533D
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Mailing Address:
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology
11 Divinity Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
p: (617) 384-8640