title: The role of cultural group selection in explaining human cooperation is a hard case to prove.
abstract: We believe cultural group selection is an elegant theoretical framework to study the evolution of complex human behaviours, including large-scale cooperation. However, the empirical evidence on key theoretical issues - such as levels of within- and between-group variation and effects of intergroup competition - is so far patchy, with no clear case where all the relevant assumptions and predictions of cultural group selection are met, to the exclusion of other explanations.
authors: Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, United Kingdom. r.mace@ucl.ac.uk http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/academic_staff/r_mace
authors: Ruth
authors: R
authors: Mace
authors: Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, United Kingdom. antonio.silva.09@ucl.ac.uk http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/people/graduate_students/a_silva
authors: Antonio S
authors: AS
authors: Silva
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D006244:Hardness; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012919:Social Behavior