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The evolutionary interplay of intergroup conflict and altruism in humans: a review of parochial altruism theory and prospects for its extension
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Drawing on an idea proposed by Darwin, it has recently been hypothesized that violent intergroup conflict might have played a substantial role in the evolution of human cooperativeness and altruism. The central notion of this argument, dubbed 'parochial altruism', is that the two genetic or cultural traits, aggressiveness against the out-groups and cooperativeness towards the in-group, including self-sacrificial altruistic behaviour, might have coevolved in humans. This review assesses the explanatory power of current theories of 'parochial altruism'. After a brief synopsis of the existing literature, two pitfalls in the interpretation of the most widely used models are discussed: potential direct benefits and high relatedness between group members implicitly induced by assumptions about conflict structure and frequency. Then, a number of simplifying assumptions made in the construction of these models are pointed out which currently limit their explanatory power. Next, relevant empirical evidence from several disciplines which could guide future theoretical extensions is reviewed. Finally, selected alternative accounts of evolutionary links between intergroup conflict and intragroup cooperation are briefly discussed which could be integrated with parochial altruism in the future.
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“Intergroup conflict plays a substantial role in the evolution of both aggressiveness against outgroup and cooperativeness towards ingroups (Rusch, 2014).”
From A neurobiological association of revenge propensity during intergroup conflict (2020) · cites this paper as Rusch, 2014
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Metadata
- Authors
- Rusch, H.
- Affiliations
- Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Rusch, Hannes
- ORCID
- Rusch, Hannes
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2014-11-07
- Volume
- 281
- Issue
- 1794
- Pages
- 20141539
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 0962-8452
- 1471-2954
- PMC
- PMC4211448
- OpenAlex
- W2116385047
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 84
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 5.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Keywords
- parochial altruism, intergroup conflict, altruism, evolution of cooperation, in-group favoritism, coevolution, relatedness, conflict structure, Charles Darwin
- MeSH terms
- Aggression, Altruism, Animals, Conflict, Psychological, Cooperative Behavior, Culture, Biological Evolution, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Theoretical
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