Informational Altruism

Summary

In the preceding chapter, social cognitive processes were argued to be essential for evolutionary theories of altruism and reciprocity, but insufficiently applied within the sociobiological approach. The role of the mind is instead well perceived by evolutionary psychologists, who do not seem fully to appreciate, on the other hand, the impact of social artefacts, such as reputation, on the evolution of altruism.

Here we focus on possible functions of reputation transmission. After a brief review of existing analyses of such a process, which is usually called gossip, speculations concerning its role in the evolution of reciprocal altruism are discussed, and ideas for future studies are sketched out.

“My mortification at cheating a friend of long standing may be substantial even when undiscovered. It may increase when the friend becomes aware of it. But it may become even more unbearablewhen our mutual friends uncover the deceit and tell one another.” (Granovetter, 1992, p. 44)