Parochial reciprocity
- Author(s)
- Simon Columbus, Isabel Thielmann, Ingo Zettler, Robert Böhm
- Abstract
Parochial altruism suggests that humans are intrinsically motivated to harm out-groups, and that this is tightly connected to a preference for benefitting their in-group. Yet, there is little evidence for the kind of unconditional out-group harm suggested by this account, nor for the assertion that it would be associated with in-group cooperation. Instead, humans selectively reciprocate actual, but also potential aggression. We therefore posit a model of parochial reciprocity, according to which individuals retaliate against actual and anticipated harms to their in-group. To test predictions arising from these competing accounts, we manipulated out-group threats and elicited preferences for the welfare of in-group and out-group members, as well as beliefs about in-group and out-group members' behaviours in an incentivised intergroup conflict game with natural groups (online sample; N = 973). In this game, individuals could pay to benefit their in-group, but had the option to additionally harm the out-group without incurring any further costs. Individuals who valued their in-group more strongly were no more likely to harm the out-group, thus contradicting parochial altruism. Instead, individuals who expected the out-group to harm their in-group preemptively retaliated the anticipated attack. Importantly, they only did so when the out-group posed an actual threat to the in-group. Taken together, the findings suggest that participation in intergroup conflict is better explained by parochial reciprocity than purely by group-based preferences.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Occupational, Economic and Social Psychology
- External organisation(s)
- University of Copenhagen, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law
- Journal
- Evolution and Human Behavior
- Volume
- 44
- Pages
- 131-139
- No. of pages
- 9
- ISSN
- 1090-5138
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.02.001
- Publication date
- 03-2023
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501021 Social psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/parochial-reciprocity(935acb34-408f-49b6-867a-d6a0e7fe1c38).html