Costly Punishment Across Human Societies

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1127333
• Publication Date: 2006-06-22T21:46:04Z
• Authors: Joseph Henrich; Richard McElreath; Abigail Barr; Jean Ensminger; Clark Barrett; Alexander Bolyanatz; Juan Camilo Cardenas; Michael Gurven; Edwins Gwako; Natalie Henrich; Carolyn Lesorogol; Frank Marlowe; David Tracer; John Ziker
• Keywords: Sociality; Punishment (psychology); Altruism; Coevolution

Recent behavioral experiments aimed at understanding the evolutionary foundations of human cooperation have suggested that a willingness to engage in costly punishment, even one-shot situations, may be part psychology and key element our sociality. However, because most been confined students industrialized societies, generalizations these insights species necessarily tentative. Here, experimental results from 15 diverse populations show (i) all demonstrate some administer punishment as unequal behavior increases, (ii) magnitude this varies substantially across populations, (iii) positively covaries with altruistic populations. These findings are consistent models gene-culture coevolution altruism further sharpen what any theory needs explain.