Cultural group selection, coevolutionary processes and large-scale cooperation

“The operational details of these learning mechanisms appear to have been 'designed' by natural selection to extract useful information from the social world—that is, from the minds of other individuals (Boyd and Richerson, 1985; Henrich and Gil-White, 2001; Henrich and Boyd, 1998).”

“…have a competitive advantage over other groups whose members do not cooperate, which can lead to the emergence of locally stable equilibria of prosocial norms (Gintis 2000; Henrich 2004; Richerson et al. 2003, 2016; Chudek and Henrich 2011; but see Mollemen et al. 2013; Raihani and Bshary 2015).”

“Despite the logic of this idea, empirical tests of this prediction using real-world cases are virtually absent [16,17,18], yet it is an assumption underlying that intergroup competition played a pivotal role in the evolution of human cooperation [3,4,5,6].”

“However, though often conflated with its genetic cousin, the cultural group selection argument requires fewer and less strenuous situational preconditions and is very plausible mechanism for the selection and transmission of cooperative norms (Henrich, 2004).”

“cooperation as well (Henrich 2004; Nowak 2006).”

“A basic finding of mathematical models of the evolution of cooperation is that when free rider problems are allowed to proliferate, cooperators eventually get exploited to extinction (Hamilton 1964; Henrich 2004 ).”

“…context, often emerging through undirected cultural evolution, but potentially amplified by mechanisms like group selection (Chudek and Henrich, 2011; Henrich, 2004; Wilson et al., 2013), or deliberate design and institutionalized change mechanisms (Hart, 1961/2012; Sunstein, 2019).”

“Note that these assumptions are not applicable to large-scale groups because large-scale groups often tend to decompose into small clusters [65] or be organized in a structured organization [66].”

“capacity is essential for understanding human action [1], it also provides the foundation for cultural learning [2, 3], reduces prejudice [4], and fosters prosocial behavior [5–8].”

“It is suggested that the capacity to feel compassion may function like a language acquisition tendency similar to how languages differ across cultures, and how they vary according to culturally specific concepts, values, norms and practices [74].”

“Social learning is also believed to be critical in prosocial behavior, a consequence of aiding its evolution (e.g., Henrich, 2004; Richerson and Boyd, 2004).”

“1 See, for example, Henrich (2004) . 2 For a current review, see Sethi and Somanathan (2003, 2004), which is sufficiently extensive to excuse”

“By producing multiple behavioral equilibria between groups that comprise groupbeneficial equilibria, cultural evolution endogenously generated a mechanism of equilibrium selection that can favor pro-sociality (Henrich, 2004).”

“This process is based on the principles of cultural group selection [48, 20, 36].”

“Models of cultural group-selection and supporting empirical evidence have shown the role of environmental conditions explaining variation in prosociality (Gintis et al., 2003; Henrich, 2004).”

“(2) By producing multiple behavioral equilibria among groups that comprise group-beneficial equilibria, cultural evolution endogenously facilitated a mechanism of selection among groups that favored prosociality (Henrich 2004; Soltis et al.”

“…mechanisms, such as disproportionate imitation of the majority behavior, symbolic marking of group membership, and punishment of norm violators (Henrich 2004), can serve to maintain cultural variation among groups at relatively high levels, even in the face of migration of individuals and…”

“In order for altruism to evolve, additional constraints must be in place, such as assortative interaction among altruists [3, 4], cultural conformity [5, 6] and punishment of norm avoiders [6, 7].”

“Joseph Henrich (2004), 'Cultural Group Selection, Revolutionary Processes and Large-scale Cooperation', Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 53, 3-35 156 12.”

“…important claims of the approach, because it means that certain behaviours that are in fact not genetically adaptive (such as altruism) can ‘hitch-hike’, getting transmitted as a side-effect of the fitness benefits across other domains of learning socially (Boyd & Richerson, 2009; Henrich, 2004).”

“…the value of “experimentation” with new behaviors (Fudenberg & Levine, 2006, 2009).5 Another highlighted aspect concerns a superstition’s potential selective value as a group-level trait in the evolution of culture (Boyd & Richerson, 2002; Henrich, 2004; Nunn & Sanchez de la Sierra, 2017).”

“The CMLS framework derives from theories of cultural evolution (Boyd and Richerson 1985) and cultural group selection (Henrich 2004).”

“…scale cooperation can be maintained when behaviourally rather homogenous groups of 58 prosocial individuals gain a competitive edge against groups of less prosocially cohesive 59 individuals (cultural groups selection) (Henrich 2004; Richerson et al. 2016; but see 60 Yamagishi and Mifune 2015).”

“…theories of social evolution appear ruled out, but cooperative behavior remains, theorists from evolutionary anthropology, biology, and economics developed new theories of human evolution based on genetic or cultural group selection frameworks (Gintis, 2000; Fehr and Henrich, 2003; Henrich, 2004).”

“1 Axelrod 1 On the reintroduction of group selection into the literature on evolutionary theory, see the discussion in Henrich (2004) and sources cited there including Sober and Wilson (1998).”

“Reflections of Baldwin’s later thinking on the evolution of morality described in his book Darwin and the Humanities also be seen in contemporary cultural evolutionary theories of cultural group selection (Henrich, 2004).”

“Henrich (2004) catches this in a formula in which the chance for altruistic behavior positively correlates with the chance of others being cooperative.”

“s equation has been used to address a vast array of topics ranging from the evolution of group selection, kin selection, and cooperation (Wade, 1985; Queller, 1992; Frank, 1995; Page and Nowak, 2002; Henrich, 2004; Fletcher and Zwick, 2006; Okasha, 2006) to ecology (Fox, 2006) and all the way to the selection of music…”

“…Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Departament d’Arquitectura i Tecnologia de Computadors, Universitat de Girona, Spain 2013 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/43673/ MPRA Paper No. 43673, posted 09 Jan 2013 14:55 UTC Impact of environmental dynamics on economic evolution:”

“Group selectionist ideas are making a comeback, both in theories of altruism in the natural world (e.g., Wilson and Hölldobler, 2005 ) and in models of the cultural evolution of human altruistic behaviour (e.g., Henrich, 2004 ) .”

“Without consistent cues to believe in any given god, atheism may be a natural result ( 10 ).”

“Therefore, there is a need for explanations of how individuals solve the dilemma and, correspondingly, successful punishment facilitates the evolution of cooperation (Henrich and Boyd, 2001; Henrich, 2004).”

“Similarly, traits such as ‘strong cooperation’ [120] and ‘altruistic punishment’ [121–123] are costly to the individual and do not seem to make sense from the perspective of a person’s utility maximization, but are selected in evolutionary agent-based models of competing groups in stochastic environments [124, 125].”

“Frameworks of ‘ linked games ’ (Spagnolo, 1999) and multilevel selection (J. Henrich, 2004; Richerson et al., 2016; Waring et al., 2015) which address interconnected and nested social dilemmas can potentially help to understand these phenomena.”

“Although Henrich (2004) offers some understanding of evolutionary processes, there is still no simple answer as to how trust can be established.”

“This type of knowledge communication likely required reciprocal altruism to have evolved before, which mathematical formalizations and empirical evidence strongly suggest was the case in the human species (Fletcher and Zwick 2007; Henrich 2004; McElreath and Boyd 2007; Trivers 2002).”

“However, as Henrich (2004) points out, there are a couple of deficiencies these approaches commonly suffer from.”

“Henrich[18] provides an overview of other promising concept, that is, conformity.”

“Finally, Henrich (2004) extends this argument to the societal level, claiming that the human species’ evolved cultural learning capacities produce imitative abilities across complex social organizations.”

“In sociology, it analyzes social norms, cultural evolution, and social network dynamics [21], [22], [23].”

“According to him, Social Darwinism could be found among libertarians such as Spencer and fascists such as Hitler.”

“Norms that bene fi t groups, or that bene fi t individuals with coordinating power over groups, may be favored by equilibrium-selection processes [134,135]. not been well connected to the empirical reputation literature.”

“2018; Safarzynska 2017) or defense against outsiders during times of colonization and neoliberal regimes (Boyd and Richerson 2002, 2009; Henrich 2004).”

“Decentralised (peer) punishment of free-riders has been shown to be a crucial element for understanding cooperation beyond kinship and small-scale groups (Gintis et al., 2003; Boyd et al., 2003; Henrich, 2004; Sigmund, 2007).”

“…ideas from the cognitive and evolutionary sciences (Atran & Norenzayan, 2004; Boyer, 2001; Bulbulia et al., 2008; Bulbulia & Sosis, 2011; Henrich, 2004; Johnson, 2005; McCauley, 2011; Sosis & Alcorta, 2003; Wilson, 2010), the project aimed to harness the world’s religious diversity to…”

“…beliefs (Norenzayan & Shariff, 2008; Norenzayan et al., 2016; Wilson, 2010); in behavioral economics, it explains why we have prosocial preferences (Henrich, 2004; Henrich et al., 2001); and in history, it has started to explain why major historical transitions occurred (Henrich 2020; Mokyr, 2016;…”

“These findings have led to support for the cultural group selection hypothesis (see Henrich, 2004; Henrich & Henrich, 2007; Henrich & Muthukrishna, 2021), which emphasizes the importance of group cohesion, altruistic punishment, and social norms for survival in between- group competition and…”

“Norms relating to fairness are important in building trust and reducing the risk of defection in cases of reciprocal exchange (McCabe, Rigdon, and Smith 2003; Henrich 2004; M. A. Nowak and Sigmund 2005).”

“That is, empathy (and by extension, prosocial behavior) is adaptive for “the good of the group” (Henrich, 2004).”

“In particular, they confront the “mismatch” (Cosmides and Tooby, 1989) and the cultural group selection (Henrich, 2004) hypotheses.”

“The model highlights the interplay between individual and group effects that is characteristic of modern views of social evolution (Bergstrom, 2002; Fletcher & Zwick, 2007; Henrich, 2004).”

“Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. (1992).”

“3 See, e.g., Boyd et al. (2003), Boyd and Richerson (1992), Fehr and Fischbacher (2003), Fehr et al. (2002), Fehr and Gächter (2000, 2002), Fehr and Henrich (2003), Fehr and Schmidt (1999), Fowler (2005), Henrich (2004), Ostrom et al. (1992).”

“Given multiple behavioral equilibria, cultural group selection represents a process that selects among alternative stable equilibria in favor of the ones most successful in competing with other groups, thereby generating a mechanism of equilibrium selection that favors prosociality (Henrich 2004).”

“However, the most important question to MI researchers (Smith, 2003), as well as those working from a CIT perspective (Henrich, 2003), is to understand the origins of institutions; assuming social institutions resolve the cooperation problem only pushes the problem to a different level: what processes generated the so…”

“But neither can completely explain the degree of large-scale cooperation observed cross culturally, even in anonymous one-shot games (Henrich, 2004; Henrich, et. al, 2005).”

“Cultural change can also be represented in terms of the degree of conformity of individuals (Henrich 2004).”

“These accounts of reciprocal altruism hinge on the assumption that altruists will choose to benefit those perceived as altruistic themselves (Trivers, 1971; Frank, 1988; Henrich, 2004), other kin (Hamilton, 1964), or others who are deemed trustworthy.”

“We now have rigorous accounts of possible mechanisms group selection mechanisms, including the important distinction between genetic and cultural group selection (Henrich, 2004).”