Culture rather than genes provides greater scope for the evolution of large-scale human prosociality.
Whether competition among large groups played an important role in human social evolution is dependent on how variation, whether cultural or genetic, is maintained between groups. Comparisons between genetic and cultural differentiation between neighboring groups show how natural selection on large groups is more plausible on cultural rather than genetic variation.
Bell
Adrian V
AV
Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. avbell@ucdavis.edu
Richerson
Peter J
PJ
McElreath
Richard
R
D000533:Altruism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D005008:Ethnopsychology; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010163:Paleontology; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012919:Social Behavior