title: Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence.
abstract: Human cooperation is highly unusual. We live in large groups composed mostly of non-relatives. Evolutionists have proposed a number of explanations for this pattern, including cultural group selection and extensions of more general processes such as reciprocity, kin selection, and multi-level selection acting on genes. Evolutionary processes are consilient; they affect several different empirical domains, such as patterns of behavior and the proximal drivers of that behavior. In this target article, we sketch the evidence from five domains that bear on the explanatory adequacy of cultural group selection and competing hypotheses to explain human cooperation. Does cultural transmission constitute an inheritance system that can evolve in a Darwinian fashion? Are the norms that underpin institutions among the cultural traits so transmitted? Do we observe sufficient variation at the level of groups of considerable size for group selection to be a plausible process? Do human groups compete, and do success and failure in competition depend upon cultural variation? Do we observe adaptations for cooperation in humans that most plausibly arose by cultural group selection? If the answer to one of these questions is "no," then we must look to other hypotheses. We present evidence, including quantitative evidence, that the answer to all of the questions is "yes" and argue that we must take the cultural group selection hypothesis seriously. If culturally transmitted systems of rules (institutions) that limit individual deviance organize cooperation in human societies, then it is not clear that any extant alternative to cultural group selection can be a complete explanation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616pjricherson@ucdavis.eduwww.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/richerson/richerson.htm.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Richerson
authors.affiliation: Graduate Group in Ecology,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616ryanbaldini@gmail.comhttps://sites.google.com/site/ryanbaldini/
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baldini
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology,University of Utah,Salt Lake City,UT 84112av.bell@gmail.comhttp://adrianbell.wordpress.com/
authors.forename: Adrian V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology,Boise State University,Boise,ID 83725kathryndemps@boisestate.eduhttp://sspa.boisestate.edu/anthropology/faculty-and-staff/kathryn-demps/
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Demps
authors.affiliation: Graduate Group in Ecology,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616kjfrost@ucdavis.eduhttps://sites.google.com/site/karljosephfrost/
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Frost
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616avhillis@ucdavis.eduhttp://vickenhillis.weebly.com.
authors.forename: Vicken
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hillis
authors.affiliation: School of Human Evolution and Social Change,Arizona State University,Tempe,AZ 85287sarah.mathew@asu.eduhttp://www.sarahmathew.net/Site/Home.html.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,Dominican University of California,San Rafael,CA 94901emily.newton@dominican.eduhttp://emilyknewton.weebly.com/
authors.forename: Emily K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616nanaar@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Naar
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science and Policy,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616lgnewson@ucdavis.edulesleynewson@gmail.eduhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lesley_Newson/
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Newson
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute,Santa Fe,NM 87501ctross@ucdavis.eduhttp://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xSugEskAAAAJ.
authors.forename: Cody
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology,University of California-Davis,Davis,CA 95616paul.smaldino@gmail.comhttp://www.smaldino.com/
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Smaldino
authors.affiliation: School of Economics,University of Maine,Orono,ME 04469timothy.waring@maine.eduhttp://timwaring.wordpress.com/
authors.forename: Timothy M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Waring
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis,University of Tennessee,Knoxville,TN 37996matt@zefferman.comhttp://www.zefferman.com/
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zefferman
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000533:Altruism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: competition; culture; evolution; group selection; heritable variation; institutions; norms