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The role of cultural group selection in explaining human cooperation is a hard case to prove

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Ruth Mace  and
Antonio S. Silva
Ruth Mace
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, United Kingdom. [email protected]@ucl.ac.ukhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/academic_staff/r_macehttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/graduate_students/a_silva
Antonio S. Silva
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, United Kingdom. [email protected]@ucl.ac.ukhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/academic_staff/r_macehttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/graduate_students/a_silva
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Abstract

We believe cultural group selection is an elegant theoretical framework to study the evolution of complex human behaviours, including large-scale cooperation. However, the empirical evidence on key theoretical issues – such as levels of within- and between-group variation and effects of intergroup competition – is so far patchy, with no clear case where all the relevant assumptions and predictions of cultural group selection are met, to the exclusion of other explanations.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e45
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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