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Strong Reciprocity

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Altruistic rewarding and punishment; Costly rewarding and punishment; Indirect reciprocity

Definition

A combination of a tendency to reward others for cooperation and of a willingness to impose sanctions on norm violators at the strong reciprocator’s own cost, even in the absence of future material return

Introduction

The theory of strong reciprocity is regarded today as one of the most influential attempts at explaining the evolution of human cooperation and altruism (Bowles and Gintis 2011; Fehr and Fischbacher 2003, 2004; Fehr et al. 2002; Fehr and Gaechter 2002; Fehr and Gintis 2008b; Fehr and Henrich 2002; Fehr and Rockenbach 2004; Fowler 2005; Gintis et al. 2003, 2008b; McElreath et al. 2003). Strong reciprocity may take both positive and negative forms. A person is a strong positive reciprocator if he/she is willing to sacrifice resources to reward someone else who cooperates, that is, to practice altruistic rewarding. In the case of strong negativereciprocity, the...

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References

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Correspondence to Tünde Paál .

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Paál, T. (2019). Strong Reciprocity. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1632-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1632-1

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