A friend in need is a friend indeed: Need-based sharing,rather than cooperative assortment,predicts experimental resource transfers among Agta hunter-gatherers |
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Authors: | Daniel Smith Mark Dyble Katie Major Abigail E Page Nikhil Chaudhary Gul Deniz Salali James Thompson Lucio Vinicius Andrea Bamberg Migliano Ruth Mace |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, United Kingdom;2. Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, United Kingdom;3. Jesus College, University of Cambridge, Jesus Lane, Cambridge CB5 8BL, United Kingdom;4. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, United Kingdom;5. Bristol Zoological Society, Bristol BS8 3HA, United Kingdom;6. Institute of Anthropology, Department of Biology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;7. School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China |
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Abstract: | Despite much theorizing, the evolutionary reasons why humans cooperate extensively with unrelated individuals are still largely unknown. While reciprocity explains many instances of non-kin cooperation, much remains to be understood. A recent suite of models based upon ‘cooperative assortativity’ suggest that non-kin cooperation can evolve if individuals preferentially assort with certain cooperative phenotypes, such as helping those who help others. Here, we test these assortative hypotheses among the Agta, a population of Filipino hunter-gatherers, using an experimental resource allocation game in which individuals divide resources between themselves and camp-mates. Individuals preferentially shared with less cooperative individuals, arguing against cooperative assortativity as a mechanism sustaining resource transfers in this population. Rather, sharing was often based on the recipient's level of need, in addition to kin-based transfers and reciprocal sharing. Contrary to several recent theoretical accounts, in this real-world setting we find no evidence for cooperative assortativity influencing patterns of cooperation. These results may reflect the demands of living in a foraging ecology characterized by high resource stochasticity, necessitating need-based sharing as a system of long-term reciprocity to mitigate repeated subsistence shortfalls. |
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Keywords: | Cooperation Assortativity Need-based sharing Reciprocity Hunter-gatherers Experimental games |
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