title: Cooperation is related to dispersal patterns in Sino-Tibetan populations.
abstract: There is growing recognition in both evolutionary biology and anthropology that dispersal is key to establishing patterns of cooperation. However, some models predict that cooperation is more likely to evolve in low dispersal (viscous) populations, while others predict that local competition for resources inhibits cooperation. Sex-biased dispersal and extra-pair mating may also have an effect. Using economic games in Sino-Tibetan populations with strikingly different dispersal patterns, we measure cooperation in 36 villages in southwestern China; we test whether social structure is associated with cooperative behaviour toward those in the neighbourhood. We find that social organization is associated with levels of cooperation in public goods and dictator games and a resource dilemma; people are less cooperative towards other villagers in communities where dispersal by both sexes is low. This supports the view that dispersal for marriage played an important role in the evolution of large-scale cooperation in human society.
authors.affiliation: Human Evolutionary Ecology Group, Dept. of Anthropology, UCL, 14 Taviton St, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: Jia-Jia
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Ecology Group, Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, PRC.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Theoretical Ecology Group, Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, PRC.
authors.forename: Qiao-Qiao
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Human Evolutionary Ecology Group, Dept. of Anthropology, UCL, 14 Taviton St, London WC1H 0BW, UK.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Human Evolutionary Ecology Group, Dept. of Anthropology, UCL, 14 Taviton St, London WC1H 0BW, UK.|Theoretical Ecology Group, Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, PRC.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6137-7739
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mace
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012744:Sex Ratio; D018609:Tibet