Evolution of conflict and cooperation in human groups
The scale of human cooperation and conflict is outstanding and evolutionarily
challenging to explain. Cooperative and hostile behaviours have deep
evolutionary roots and adaptive functions. However, theoretical models differ in
how they explain these functions. Thus, my thesis aims to empirically test
functional predictions about human cooperation and conflict. These experiments
use a behavioural ecological framework, and pay also attention to the effects of
social and developmental environments. In the first two chapters, I studied how
group composition affects cooperation and individual success, and how people
react to information of each other’s cooperative behaviour. I found that
cooperative contributions increased with greater group heterogeneity for those
with high baseline cooperativeness, and decreased for those with lower baseline
cooperativeness. However, people were insensitive to pre-information of group
composition, even though group composition was essential for cooperation to be
successful. In Chapter III, I compared evolutionary theories of human intergroup
conflict by empirically testing whether intergroup aggression is motivated by
public goods as predicted by models of group selection (i.e. Parochial Altruism
models) or by private goods as predicted by models of individual selection (i.e.
Male Warrior and Chimpanzee models). My results challenge group selection
models by implying that private goods motivate intergroup hostilities even when
they are socially inefficient. In chapter IV, I propose and test a hypothesis that
harsh parental treatment intensifies group-beneficial prosocial and bellicose
norms and thus contributes to group success in intergroup conflicts. I found, in
accordance with my hypothesis, that harsh parental treatment increased both
these traits in males and harsh parenting may thus bear cultural evolutionary
consequences. Together, my results contribute further knowledge to our
evolutionary understanding of the dynamics, backgrounds and patterns of
human cooperation and conflict.
...


Publisher
University of JyväskyläISBN
978-951-39-7442-8ISSN Search the Publication Forum
1456-9701Keywords
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- Väitöskirjat [3178]
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