The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation

The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation

Proactive, that is, unsolicited, prosociality is a key component of our hyper-cooperation, which in turn has enabled the emergence of various uniquely human traits, including complex cognition, morality and cumulative culture and technology. However, the evolutionary foundation of the human prosocia...

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Published in:Nature communications Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 4747
Main Authors: Burkart, J. M., Allon, O., Amici, F., Fichtel, C., Finkenwirth, C., Heschl, A., Huber, J., Isler, K., Kosonen, Z. K., Martins, E., Meulman, E.J., Richiger, R., Rueth, K., Spillmann, B., Wiesendanger, S., van Schaik, C. P.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27-08-2014
Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:
631/181/2469
631/378/2645/2646
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Biological Evolution
Child
Child, Preschool
Cooperative Behavior
Female
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Male
Motivation
multidisciplinary
Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation
Primates - psychology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Proactive, that is, unsolicited, prosociality is a key component of our hyper-cooperation, which in turn has enabled the emergence of various uniquely human traits, including complex cognition, morality and cumulative culture and technology. However, the evolutionary foundation of the human prosocial sentiment remains poorly understood, largely because primate data from numerous, often incommensurable testing paradigms do not provide an adequate basis for formal tests of the various functional hypotheses. We therefore present the results of standardized prosociality experiments in 24 groups of 15 primate species, including humans. Extensive allomaternal care is by far the best predictor of interspecific variation in proactive prosociality. Proactive prosocial motivations therefore systematically arise whenever selection favours the evolution of cooperative breeding. Because the human data fit this general primate pattern, the adoption of cooperative breeding by our hominin ancestors also provides the most parsimonious explanation for the origin of human hyper-cooperation. The evolutionary foundation of human prosociality remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that extensive allomaternal care is the best predictor of prosocial behaviour among 15 primate species, including humans, which suggests that prosocial motivations arise along with cooperative breeding.
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ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms5747