Altruists are trusted based on non-verbal cues.
The identification of altruists based on non-verbal cues might offer a solution to the problem of subtle cheating. Previous studies have indicated that the ability to discriminate altruists from non-altruists emerges during evolution. However, behavioural differences with regard to social exchanges involving altruists and non-altruists have not been studied. We investigated differences in responses to videotaped altruists and non-altruists with the Faith Game. Participants tended to entrust real money to altruists more than to non-altruists, providing strong evidence that cognitive adaptations evolve as counter-strategies to subtle cheating.
Oda
Ryo
R
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan. oda.ryo@nitech.ac.jp
Naganawa
Takuya
T
Yamauchi
Shinsaku
S
Yamagata
Noriko
N
Matsumoto-Oda
Akiko
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000533:Altruism; D003463:Cues; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D035502:Trust; D055815:Young Adult