Skip to main content

Evolutionary Theory and Cooperation in Everyday Life

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Games, Groups, and the Global Good

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Game Theory ((SSGT))

Abstract

A rapid process of integration is taking place for theories of cooperation in both evolutionary biology and the human social sciences. It includes a return to the concept of social groups as like single organisms, which was once commonplace but was eclipsed by various forms of individualism that became dominant during the second half of the twentieth century. So far, the integration has taken place mostly within academia, but it is highly relevant to everyday life, as we show with our research on cooperation and its consequences at a city-wide scale in Binghamton, New York.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bingham PM (1999) Human uniqueness: A general theory. Q Rev Biol 74:133–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boehm C (1999) Hierarchy in the forest: egalitarianism and the evolution of human altruism. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowles S (2003) Microeconomics: behavior, institutions, and evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowles S (2008) Policies designed for self-interested citizens may undermine the moral sentiments: evidence from economic experiments. Science 302:1605–1609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd R, Richerson PJ (1992) Punishment allows the evolution of cooperation (or anything else) in sizable groups. Ethol Sociobiol 13:171–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brosig J (2002) Identifying cooperative behavior: some experimental results in a prisoner’s dilemma game. J Econ Behav Organ 47:275–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Browne J (1995) Charles Darwin: voyaging. Knopf, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Browne J (2002). Charles Darwin: the power of place. Knopf, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter JP, Cardenas J-C (2008) Behavioral development economics: lessons from field labs in the developing world. J Dev Stud 44:337–364

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter JP, Harrison GW, List JA (eds) (2005) Field experiments in economics. JAI, Greenwich, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk A, Zehnder C (2007) Discrimination and in-group favoritism in a citywide trust experiment, IZA Discussion Paper Series, no. 2765

    Google Scholar 

  • Fehr E, Fischbacher U (2003) The nature of human altruism. Nature 425:785–791

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gintis H (2000) Game theory evolving. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Gintis H, Bowles S, Boyd R, Fehr E (eds) (2005) Moral sentiments and material interests. MIT, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton WD (1975) Innate social aptitudes in man, an approach from evolutionary genetics. In: Fox R (ed) Biosocial anthropology. Malaby Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammerstein P (ed) (2003) Genetic and cultural evolution of cooperation. MIT, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Henrich J, Boyd R, Bowles S, Camerer C, Fehr E, Gintis H (2004) Foundations of human sociality: economic experiments and ethnographic evidence from fifteen small-scale societies. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J, Szathmary E (1995) The major transitions of life. W.H. Freeman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J, Szathmary E (1999) The origins of life: from the birth of life to the origin of language. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Milgram S, Mann L, Harter S (1965) The lost-letter technique: a tool of social research. Public Opin Q 29:437–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Brien DT, Wilson DS, Eldakar OT, Carpenter J (2008) The World in a city: using experimental economics games to measure small-scale variation in social preferences. (manuscript in preparation). [Three other manuscripts by O’Brien et al will be referenced here]

    Google Scholar 

  • Plotkin H (1994) Darwin machines and the nature of knowledge. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Post SG (ed) (2007) Altruism and health: perspectives from empirical research. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Richerson PJ, Boyd R (2005) Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ (2004) Neighborhood and community: collective efficacy and community safety. New Economy 11:106–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ (2008) After-school Chicago: space and the city. Urban Geogr 29:127–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sober E, Wilson DS (1998) Unto others: the evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Turchin P (2005) War and peace and war. Pi Press, Upper Saddle River, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Wegner DM (1986) Transactive memory: a contemporary analysis of the group mind. In: Mullen B, Goethals GR (eds) Theories of group behavior. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS (2002) Darwin’s cathedral: evolution, religion, and the nature of society. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS (2004) What is wrong with absolute individual fitness? Trends Ecol Evol 19:245–248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS (2005) Natural selection and complex systems: a complex interaction. In: Hemelrijk C (ed) Self-organization and evolution of biological and social systems. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp 151–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS (2006) Human groups as adaptive units: toward a permanent concensus. In: Carruthers P, Laurence S, Stich S (eds) The innate mind: culture and cognition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 78–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS, Csikszentmihalyi M (2007) Health and the ecology of altruism. In: Post SG (ed) The science of altruism and health. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 314–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS, O’Brien DT (2009) Human prosociality from an evolutionary perspective: variation and correlations at a city-wide scale. Hum Behav Evol in press

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS, Wilson EO (2007) Rethinking the theoretical foundation of sociobiology. Q Rev Biol 82:327–348

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson DS, Wilson EO (2008) Evolution for the good of the group. Am Sci 96:380–389

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Sloan Wilson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wilson, D.S., O’Brien, D.T. (2009). Evolutionary Theory and Cooperation in Everyday Life. In: Levin, S. (eds) Games, Groups, and the Global Good. Springer Series in Game Theory. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85436-4_9

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85436-4_9

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-85435-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-85436-4

  • eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics