Chapter 9

The evolution of human social behavior and formation of social and economic structures

The expression of social behavior across diverse settings, in experiments, and in game scenarios

Way in which humans primarily interact with one another to meet and optimize their well-being

Basic needs driving early social exchange• Protection and self-defense from predators• Resource sharing

Still alive in contemporary social exchange

Humans are equipped to cooperate• Cooperation is an effective strategy: benefits

from trading things of value

Theorized by John Stuart Mill• Decisions and behaviors are guided by

whether happiness is increased or decreased

Key factor in human exchange• People make rational calculations to

maximize their return of value

No matter the size of the social exchange structure, its elementary forms lie in the basics of social behavior• Places importance on both field and

experimental research• Overlooks the role of irrational behavior

Emotions play a role in the outcomes of social exchanges• Factors affect the exchange context,

exchange process, and exchange outcomes Internal emotions are not always fully

expressed outwardly• Displayed emotions are based on social

norms• Release of emotions controlled by cognition

Kollock (1994)• Test of commitment and trust in undergrad

students• Students were given role as either buyer or

seller, with some buyers knowing the quality of the good before purchase and some knowing the quality after purchase

• Conditions of uncertainty were associated with greater commitment and trust of a buyer to a seller

Molm, Takabashi, and Peterson (2000)• Test of negotiated versus reciprocal

exchanges Reciprocal: individual provides goods without

knowing what they will receive in return Negotiated: predetermined trade agreements

• Trust and behavioral commitment in the partner was greater in reciprocal exchange conditions

Strong Reciprocity• Why humans cooperate with others even

though there is no relatedness or obvious short-term gain

• Evolved sense of sociality• Evolved sense of fairness

Humans act on principles of fairness• Welfare programs: 70% of Americans did

not think welfare was fair to working people, whereas fewer Americans were concerned about the costs

• Free riders: Cooperators will punish or penalize free riders even if there is no direct material gain

Impact of oxytocin• Released during pair-bonding activities• Helps facilitate trust among humans during

social interaction Use of brain imaging

• Study 1: Mutual cooperation during an experimental game was correlated with areas of the brain that involve rewards

• Study 2: Participants who cooperated had greater activation in regions that theoretically serve to delay reward, thus facilitating cooperative decisions

Power differential among social exchanges• Control of limited resources creates leverage• Molm (1990) found that structural power has direct

effects on social exchange outcomes Strategies to deal with power differentials

• Obtain a resource the power holder does not have• Find alternative sources of the resource• Get along without the resource• Attempt to force the power holder to give you the

resource

Behavior benefitting another organism while being detrimental to the organism performing the behavior• e.g. jumping into a river to save a drowning stranger

Benefits the long-term self-interest of organisms• Altruistic outweighs nonaltruistic behavior in long run• Humans rely on one another and are mutually

interdependent• Immense opportunities to choose between altruistic

or free-riding actions

Real Altruism• Behavior where there is no premeditated

calculation of what might be received if altruistic behavior is initiated

Calculated Altruism• Premeditated calculation about receiving a

benefit for altruistic behavior

“Cheaters”• Exploiters of altruistic behavior by nonaltruists

without any consequence to the nonaltruists Gross Cheating

• Failure to give anything at all in return Subtle Cheating

• Always giving less than what was given

*Adapted from Trivers (1971).

Tendency to cooperate with strangers and punish cheaters, even at a personal cost

Impact of strong reciprocity• Predicate moral sentiments of contemporary

people valuing freedom and equality• Possession of trait allows one to contribute to

group survival in dire times, even if a minority• In dire times, groups whose members possess

the trait will outperform groups low on strong reciprocity.

Why do people donate to charities?• Positive feelings experienced when donating• Discomfort of saying no due to social

pressures Cognitive neuroscience of charitable

giving• Experiments showed that there is a neural

basis for charitable donations Areas of the brain that mediate social bonding and

aversion are activated in altruistic decision making

May serve as possible moderators of altruistic behavior• Giver in exchange may be influenced by

bigoted viewpoints• Study in post-apartheid South Africa

revealed insider bias based on participant surnames

Few attempts to provide a scale of altruism

1981 study assessed altruistic personality• Questioned: giving blood, giving directions

to strangers, volunteer work, etc.• Findings correlated with other scales of

moral judgment, empathy, and prosocial values

Perspective taking• The ability to get into other person’s shoes

and sense their viewpoints, needs, and distress

Types of empathy• Sympathetic concern

One feels the other’s state of need and tries to make things better (impulse driven)

• Cognitive empathy Appraisal of what caused the other person’s

emotional state and thoughts about amelioration (rationally driven)

Objective• Uncover reasons why people make

decisions, whether they are seemingly rational or irrational

Basic theory• Everyone’s lives involve interactions with

others, with strategies and decisions that can be modeled using games

• Outcomes are based on the combined behavior of multiple individuals

Purpose• To achieve best possible outcome for oneself in a

difficult situation Set-up

• Two bank robbers are questioned separately• If a robber pleads guilty and rats out his

accomplice, he will go free and his accomplice will get 30 years in prison.

• If a both robbers plead guilty and rat each other out, they will both receive 10 years in prison.

• If both keep quiet, they will both get 1 year Uses

• Interactions between nations involving decisions of war and peace, trade and economics, etc.

Fetal environment and infancy Childhood and adolescence Adulthood

Biosocial development starts at an early age

Individual variations in temperament• Indicates likely variation in altruistic and

cooperation behaviors at later ages• Impact of parenting on moderating behavioral

tendencies

Learning cooperation• Play with other children: involves sharing• Observational learning: watching family

members cooperate with each other Developing sense of fair play and

equality• Increased willingness to share between 3- to 4-

year-olds (9%) and 7- to 8-year-olds (45%)• Continues to solidify through adolescence

Greater importance on exchanges with peers during adolescence

Continued impact of prosocial behaviors• Dependence on cooperation with others and

developed functional skills for social exchange• Influenced by level of agreeableness

Measured by Five Factor Model of Personality model High Agreeableness: getting along with others,

caring about others, and acceptance Low Agreeableness: distrust, impatience, and

aggression

Social exchange and cooperation is rooted in the evolution of social behavior.

Cooperation among early humans was driven by the need for protection and resource sharing.

Emotions play a role in social exchanges. Humans have a developed sense of fairness and

are willing to penalize others without obvious self-gain.

Control of limited resources involves leveraging power, adding competition, cooperation, and conflict to social exchanges.

Altruistic behavior outweighs nonaltruistic behavior in the long run.