Judgments about cooperators and freeriders on a Shuar work team: An evolutionary psychological perspective

Abstract

Evolutionary biological theories of group cooperation predict that (1) group members will tend to judge cooperative co-members favorably, and freeriding co-members negatively and (2) members who themselves cooperate more frequently will be especially likely to make these social judgments. An experiment tested these predictions among Shuar hunter-horticulturalists. Subjects viewed depictions of pairs of workers who varied in the extent to which they had contributed to, and benefited from, a team project. Subjects were then asked to judge which worker deserved more respect, and which deserved more punishment. When judging between unequal-contributors, all subjects tended to favor more cooperative (i.e., higher-contributing) workers. However, when judging between equal-contributors/unequal-benefiters, male subjects who themselves often engaged in team cooperation tended to favor more cooperative (i.e., lower-benefiting) workers, while subjects who were female and who therefore rarely engaged in team cooperation tended to favor less cooperative (i.e., higher-benefiting) workers.