title: Proximate and ultimate causes of punishment and strong reciprocity.
abstract: While admirable, Guala's discussion of reciprocity suffers from a confusion between proximate causes (psychological mechanisms triggering behaviour) and ultimate causes (evolved function of those psychological mechanisms). Because much work on "strong reciprocity" commits this error, I clarify the difference between proximate and ultimate causes of cooperation and punishment. I also caution against hasty rejections of "wide readings" of experimental evidence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, East Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada. barclayp@uoguelph.ca
authors.forename: Pat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barclay
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005716:Game Theory; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011678:Punishment / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior