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Reciprocal Altruism

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Synonyms

Reciprocity; Reciprocal cooperation; Social exchange

Definition

Reciprocal altruism refers to the prosocial interaction(s) between two or more individuals where the outcome of the act (or a sequence of acts) represents a fitness cost for the supporter, a fitness gain for the receiver, and the expectation that the receiver will return the favor sometime in the future.

Introduction

French philosopher August Comte defined altruism as the moral imperative of aiding others above self-interest (Wilson 2015). This concept was later adopted by evolutionary theory for describing the occurrence of prosocial behaviors where an actor accrued a cost to himself (measured as a decrease in fitness), when supporting others, whereas the recipients of help increased their fitness (Trivers 1971). Examples of altruism in nonhuman species include, but are not limited to, anti-predatorial tactics (e.g. alarm calling, vigilance), formation of coalitions during intra- and inter-group conflict,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre & Heitor B. F. Fernandes

  2. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    James Zerbe

Authors
  1. Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre
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  2. James Zerbe
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  3. Heitor B. F. Fernandes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Jon Sefcek

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Peñaherrera-Aguirre, M., Zerbe, J., Fernandes, H.B.F. (2018). Reciprocal Altruism. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1564-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1564-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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