Lecture 7 - Jay Phelan PDF

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Jay Phelan...

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Kindness ↙ ↘ 1.Shared Genes 2. Reciprocity ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Among unrelated individuals, selfishness is the rule, kindness is the exception Cooperation among non-kin is almost non-existent in the animal world 10% of adults and 33% of juveniles fail to find a meal on any given night A bat will starve to death if it doesn’t get food on more than two consecutive nights ‘Full” bat will sometimes regurgitate blood meal into a hungry bat’s mouth A bat is significantly more likely to give food to bats that have previously helped it Bats shun individuals that do not help them Take Home Message #1: Cooperation among unrelated individuals is very rare in the animal kingdom What conditions are conducive to reciprocal altruism? ○ Repeated interactions ○ The high benefit to recipient relative to the cost to the actor ○ Ability to keep tabs on people (and punish cheaters) Does unconditional love among unrelated individuals exist? ○ What is the big impediment to kindness? (from a biological perspective) ■ Freeloaders ○ You are very vulnerable when you do something kind for another person ○ A cheater can take the favor and run ○ The market share of the cheater genes increases ○ The market share of the altruism genes decreases Reciprocal altruism could evolve only if you can remember and punish the cheaters We can learn to enhance cooperation a kindness We can (and should) exploit this We must be aware of others who are exploiting this What are some design features we’d expect to see in the Human Brain? What skills should we be good at? ○ 1. We ought to excel at recognizing faces ■ Vampire bats: 100 individuals ■ Humans: Thousands ○ 2. We ought to be good at keeping track of cheaters ○ 3. We ought to be voracious consumers of social information Gossip, Social Information & Protection Against Cheaters ○ Why are our brains so good at keeping track of social info? ■ Why do we keep tabs on people we will never meet? ● Our brains were built for a world in which we encountered only a small number of people and we may have needed any one of them. Take Home Message #2: Humans recognize faces, keep track of kindness & selfishness, and live for a long time. This makes reciprocal altruism possible. But we’re extremely aware of our vulnerability

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Your avenues to enhancing cooperation ○ Tinker with the perceived costs and benefits ■ Half the Samaritans were manipulated into thinking they were late for an appointment and the other half were told they had plenty of time. Both groups saw a man who needed medical attention and their actions were based on whether they were late or early ■ 63% of people helped out if they had spare time ■ 10% helped if they were short on time even if they were late for their appointment ■ Our level of kindness/selfishness is influenced by the cost of the kindness ■ 60% of people let the person use the copier ■ 94% of people said yes to the person who said they needed it or else they would be fired ■ 93% of people said yes because the person stated their reason for needing to use the copier ■ Our level of kindness/selfishness is influenced by how we perceive the benefit to the recipient ■ 1. Reduce the perceived cost to the other person ■ 2. Accentuate the benefit that you’ll receive from the cooperation ○ Distinguish cheaters and kind people ■ 3. Facilitate the building of reputations ■ Our motivation to do acts of kindness is influenced by “reputation enhancement” ■ 4. Use “honest signals” that can’t be faked ■ 5. Keep track of and punish cheaters ○ Reduce the perceived vulnerability of partners ■ 6. Make the first step: gifts...