Definition
There are different evolutionary mechanisms that explain human large-scale cooperation (which is so rare in animal kingdom) even with genetically unrelated people.
Cooperation has adaptive importance as it increases the chances of hunting success and access to resources through the establishment of coalitions in almost all primates including humans (Tomasello 2000). Cooperative interactions are also of vital importance to the members of the group in terms of survival advantage since the resources obtained by the group are closed to those who do not contribute to the public good as a cooperative interaction. That is why cooperation can be considered as a mechanism that emerged as an evolutionarily stable strategy. Similarly, our cognitive architecture is thought to evolve in order to make cooperation possible. For instance, the emergence of a number of cognitive mechanisms such as language or...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour. II. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7(1), 17–52.
Johnson, D., & Krüger, O. (2004). The good of wrath: Supernatural punishment and the evolution of cooperation. Political Theology, 5(2), 159–176.
Nelson, E. E., & Panksepp, J. (1998). Brain substrates of infant–mother attachment: Contributions of opioids, oxytocin, and norepinephrine. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 22(3), 437–452.
Tomasello, M. (2000). Culture and cognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(2), 37–40.
Tomasello, M. (2016). A natural history of human morality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Trivers, R. L. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 46(1), 35–57.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Yilmaz, O., Bahçekapili, H.G., Sevi, B. (2019). Evolution of Human Sociality, The. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2890-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2890-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences