Humans reciprocate by discriminating against group peers

Hugh-Jones, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8360-8884, Ron, Itay and Zultan, Ro'i (2019) Humans reciprocate by discriminating against group peers. Evolution and Human Behavior, 40 (1). pp. 90-95. ISSN 1090-5138

[thumbnail of Accepted manuscript]
Preview
PDF (Accepted manuscript) - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Motivated by cycles of intergroup revenge in real-world conflicts, we experimentally test the hypothesis that humans practice group-based reciprocity: if someone harms or helps them, they harm or help other members of that person's group. Subjects played a trust game, then allocated money between other people. Senders whose partners returned more in the trust game gave more to that partner's group members. The effect was about half as large as the effect of direct reciprocity. Receivers' allocations to group members were not affected by their partners’ play in the trust game, suggesting that group reciprocity was only triggered by strong norm violations. We discuss the role of group reciprocity in conflict among early humans.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: upstream reciprocity,group identity,intergroup conflict
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Environment, Resources and Conflict
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 28 Aug 2018 09:31
Last Modified: 18 Aug 2023 00:19
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/68133
DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.08.005

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item