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Self-Interest and the Design of Rules
Manvir Singh1, Richard Wrangham2, Luke Glowacki2,3
1Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA. manvirsingh@fas.harvard.edu.
Human Nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)
|August 26, 2017
Summary
The self-interested enforcement (SIE) hypothesis explains how competing parties shape social rules, driving cultural evolution. SIE accounts for group-beneficial culture and influences cultural group selection dynamics.
Area of Science:
- Social and Cultural Evolution
- Behavioral Economics
- Game Theory
Background:
- Social rules often provide group-level benefits, posing challenges for cultural evolution theories.
- Existing multilevel selection theories inadequately specify within-group processes, leading to an overemphasis on cultural group selection.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce the self-interested enforcement (SIE) hypothesis to explain rule design in social behavior.
- Investigate how SIE accounts for group-functional culture and its interaction with cultural group selection.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling of social rule evolution.
- Analysis of competing enforcement capacities within social groups.
Main Results:
- The SIE hypothesis explains the emergence and stability of group-functional culture.
- Relative enforcement capacities of competing parties significantly shape rule design.
- SIE can either stifle or accelerate cultural group selection based on social conditions.
Conclusions:
- Self-interested enforcement is a key factor in the emergence, stability, and change of social rules.
- SIE provides a more complete understanding of cultural evolution beyond group-level benefits.
- Rule design is fundamentally linked to the power dynamics of enforcement.
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