Indirect reciprocity

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Indirect reciprocity is a concept in social psychology that is supposed to explain how the evolution of altruistic behavior towards an unrelated individual can come about through natural selection if this behavior is not reciprocated by the favored individual.

According to this, virtuous behavior pays off in improving one's reputation, which then creates cooperative behavior in others. Indirect reciprocity was reduced to a simple formula: "I will help you and someone else will help me." (M. Nowak, K. Sigmund, 2005)

description

Indirect reciprocity is less common in the animal kingdom than reciprocal altruism , but common in humans. Biologist Geoffrey Miller points out that the beneficiary is often poor and rarely knows the giver. The giver is usually not interested in the efficiency of the resource transfer, but in whether another animal is watching him. The altruist can thus achieve a higher social status. The mathematicians Karl Sigmund and Martin A. Nowak demonstrated this. According to Miller, giving time and / or money is more a display of one's wealth than an act to be reciprocated directly at a later date. Such altruism, like the consumption of validity, is a signal to third parties. This signal implies not only one's own wealth, but also one's own generosity. The reputation of being a good person could outweigh the cost of the altruistic act. In particular, this reputation could be useful when choosing a partner . The Sexual selection could promote a conspicuous displays of altruism, whether through charity or exploits . Such actions signal to the woman that the man has both resources and is generous.

literature

  • Geoffrey Miller: The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature . Doubleday, 2000. ISBN 0385495161 .
  • Martin A. Nowak & Karl Sigmund: Evolution of indirect reciprocity . Nature, October 2005, Vol. 437, 1291–1298 (PDF; 357 kB)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Stanley A. Rice: Encyclopedia of evolution. Checkmark Books, 2007. ISBN 0816071217 . P. 17 f.
  2. ↑ Jonathan Haidt: The New Synthesis in Moral Psychology . In: Science . 316, No. 5827, May 18, 2007, pp. 998-1002. doi : 10.1126 / science.1137651 .