Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T16:09:19.277Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are we there yet? Every computational theory needs a few black boxes, including theories about groups

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2022

Andrew W. Delton*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, College of Business, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392, [email protected]://www.andrewdelton.com

Abstract

Pietraszewski exemplifies the need for computational theory using group conflict; I complement this with an example of group cooperation. He criticizes past theories for having black boxes; I suggest his theory also has a black box – the concept of costs. He divides what mentally constitutes a group from mere ancillary attributes; I hazard that some of these attributes are essential.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balliet, D., Tybur, J. M., & Van Lange, P. A. M. (2017). Functional interdependence theory: An evolutionary account of social situations. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 21(4), 361388, https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868316657965.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cimino, A., & Delton, A. W. (2010). On the perception of newcomers: Toward an evolved psychology of intergenerational coalitions. Human Nature, 21(2), 186202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delton, A. W., & Cimino, A. (2010). Exploring the evolved concept of newcomer: Experimental tests of a cognitive model. Evolutionary Psychology, 8(2), 317335.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delton, A. W., Cosmides, L., Guemo, M., Robertson, T. E., & Tooby, J. (2012). The psychosemantics of free riding: Dissecting the architecture of a moral concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(6), 12521270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delton, A. W., Kane, J. V., Petersen, M. B., Robertson, T. E., & Cosmides, L. (2021). Partisans use emotions as social pressure: Feeling anger and gratitude at exiters and recruits in political groups. Party Politics, https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688211018796.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delton, A. W., & Krasnow, M. M. (2017). The psychology of deterrence explains why group membership matters for third-party punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(6), 734743, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.07.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delton, A. W., Nemirow, J., Robertson, T. E., Cimino, A., & Cosmides, L. (2013). Merely opting out of a public good is moralized: An error management approach to cooperation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105(4), 621638.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delton, A. W., Petersen, M. B., & Robertson, T. E. (2018). Partisan goals, emotions, and political mobilization: The role of motivated reasoning in pressuring others to vote. Journal of Politics, 80(3), 890902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delton, A. W., & Robertson, T. E. (2012). The social cognition of social foraging. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 715725.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delton, A. W., & Sell, A. (2014). The co-evolution of concepts and motivation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(2), 115120, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414521631.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gurven, M. (2004). To give and to give not: The behavioral ecology of human food transfers. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(4), 543583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sell, A., Sznycer, D., Al-Shawaf, L., Lim, J., Krauss, A., Feldman, A., … Tooby, J. (2017). The grammar of anger: Mapping the computational architecture of a recalibrational emotion. Cognition, 168, 110128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2017.06.002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sugiyama, L. S. (2004). Illness, injury, and disability among Shiwiar forager-horticulturists: Implications of health-risk buffering for the evolution of human life history. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 123(4), 371389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1992). Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 5(4), 297323.CrossRefGoogle Scholar