Identity, Kinship, and the Evolution of Cooperation

TL;DR

This paper presents an integrated theory explaining human cooperation through self-referential thought, social identity, and kinship-based cultural systems, addressing challenges like free rider problems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theory linking self-identity and kinship culture to the evolution of human cooperation, explaining complex social behaviors.

Findings

Cooperation is driven by culturally formed social identities.

Emotions linked to identity motivate cooperative behavior.

Deviations threaten social identity, leading to punishment.

Abstract

Extensive cooperation among biologically unrelated individuals is uniquely human and much current research attempts to explain this fact. We draw upon social, cultural, and psychological aspects of human uniqueness to present an integrated theory of human cooperation that explains aspects of human cooperation that are problematic for other theories (e.g., defector invasion avoidance, preferential assortment to exclude free riders, and the second order free rider problem). We propose that the evolution of human cooperative behavior required (1) a capacity for self-sustained, self-referential thought manifested as an integrated worldview, including a sense of identity and point of view, and (2) the cultural formation of kinship-based social organizational systems within which social identities can be established and transmitted through enculturation. Human cooperative behavior arose, we argue, through the acquisition of a culturally grounded social identity that included the expectation of cooperation among kin. This identity is linked to basic survival instincts by emotions that are mentally experienced as culture laden feelings. As a consequence, individuals are motivated to cooperate with those perceived culturally as kin, while deviations from expected social behavior are experienced as threatening to one's social identity, leading to punishment of those seen as violating cultural expectations regarding socially proper behavior.