The psychology of sharing: an evolutionary approach
Abstract
This thesis takes an evolutionary perspective on human psychology. To
the extent that inherited tendencies shape behaviour, their design will be
fitted to the social environments prevailing as Homo sapiens evolved, in
foraging groups, the nearest modem equivalent being hunter-gatherers.
From ethnographies of hunter-gatherers, food-sharing and counterdominance
were identified as universal. Food-sharing was more thorough
than is explicable purely by kinship or reciprocation; one functional effect
was to even out the supply of valuable high-variance food. In contrast with
the social systems of the other great apes, counter-dominance spread
influence widely, preventing the emergence of dominant individuals who
could obtain resources disproportionately. Potential paths for the evolution of
egalitarian tendencies are discussed.
Two falsifiable hypotheses were generated from this perspective. First,
sharing will facilitate risk-taking. The predicted effect was confirmed at high
risk levels, similar to those faced by hunters. Given that during evolution risk
was reduced primarily by social means, social as well as rational factors are
treated by the evolved brain as relevant to risky decisions. It is argued that
this result may suggest a new perspective on the Group Polarisation
experiments.
The second hypothesis tested was that an egalitarian environment will
produce beneficial effects on individual and social behaviour. The data
collected were consistent with the hypothesis: a comparison between three
Italian towns showed that measures of health (including cardiovascular
mortality), education, social involvement, crime and social perceptions were
significantly more positive where co-operatives employed a larger percentage
of the population.
The evolutionary perspective showed its value as a means of generating
novel testable hypotheses.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
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