The big man mechanism: How prestige fosters cooperation and creates Prosocial leaders

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 370, Issue 1683, 2015, Pages

  Henrich, Joseph ^a,b,c   Chudek, Maciej ^d   Boyd, Robert ^c,d  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

^c CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH   (Canada)

^d ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Cooperation; Cultural evolution; Prestige; Prestige biased transmission; Prosociality; Status

Indexed keywords

COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR; CULTURAL CHANGE; HUMAN BEHAVIOR; INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH; LEADERSHIP; PSYCHOLOGY; SOCIAL STATUS;

COOPERATION; CULTURAL FACTOR; HUMAN; LEADERSHIP; MALE; SOCIAL DESIRABILITY; SOCIAL DOMINANCE; SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT; THEORETICAL MODEL;

COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR; CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS; HUMANS; LEADERSHIP; MALE; MODELS, THEORETICAL; SOCIAL DESIRABILITY; SOCIAL DOMINANCE; SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT;

EID: 84945249457     PISSN: 09628436     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0013     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. von Rueden C, Gurven M, Kaplan H, Stieglitz J. 2014 Leadership in an egalitarian society. Hum. Nat. 25, 538-566. (doi:10.1007/s12110-014-9213-4)
2. Von Rueden CR, Gurven M, Kaplan H, Stieglitz J. 2015 Leadership in an egalitarian human society. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 156, 315.
3. von Rueden C, Gurven M, Kaplan H. 2011 Why do men seek status? Fitness payoffs to dominance and prestige. Proc. R. Soc. B 278, 2223-2232. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.2145)
4. Henrich J, Gil-White F. 2001 The evolution of prestige: freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evol. Hum. Behav. 22, 165-196. (doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(00)00071-4)
5. Radcliffe-Brown AR. 1964 The Andaman Islanders. New York, NY: Free Press.
6. von Rueden C. 2014 The roots and fruits of social status in small-scale human societies. In The psychology of social status (eds JT Cheng, JL Tracy, C Anderson), pp. 179-200. New York, NY: Springer.
7. Paine R. 1971 Animals as capital—comparisons among northern nomadic herders and hunters. Anthropol. Q. 44, 157-172. (doi:10.2307/3316936)
8. Lee R. 1979 The !Kung San: men, women and work in a foraging society. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
9. Marshall L. 1976 The !Kung of Nyae Nyae, 433. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
10. Smith EA, Bliege Bird RL. 2000 Turtle hunting and tombstone opening: public generosity as costly signaling. Evol. Hum. Behav. 21, 245-261. (doi:10.1016/S1090-5138(00)00031-3)
11. Goldman I. 1979 The Cubeo. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
12. Wiessner P. 1996 Leveling the Hunter: constraints on the status quest in foraging societies. In Food and the status quest (eds P Wiessner, W Schiefenhovel), pp. 171-192. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books.
13. Johnson A, Earle T. 1987 The evolution of human societies: from foraging group to Agrarian State. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
14. Heizer R. 1978 Handbook of North American Indians: California, vol. 8 (ed. Sturtevant). Washington: Smithsonian Institution.
15. Kroeber AL. 1925 Handbook of the Indians of California. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
16. Sillitoe P. 1998 An introduction to the anthropology of Melanesia: culture and tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
17. Godelier M. 1986 The making of great men: male domination and power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
18. Lemonnier P. 1996 Food, competition, and the status of food in New Guinea. In Food and the status quest: an interdisciplinary perspective (eds P Wiessner, W Schiefenhovel), pp. 219-234. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books.
19. Sahlins MD. 1963 Poor man, rich man, big-man, chief—political types in Melanesia and Polynesia. Comp. Stud. Soc. Hist. 5, 285-303. (doi:10.1017/S0010417500001729)
20. Boyd R, Richerson PJ. 1985 Culture and the evolutionary process. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
21. Henrich J. In press. The secret of our success: how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smart. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
22. Chudek M, Heller S, Birch S, Henrich J. 2012 Prestige-biased cultural learning: bystander’s differential attention to potential models influences children’s learning. Evol. Hum. Behav. 33, 46-56. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.05.005)
23. Atkisson C, O’Brien MJ, Mesoudi A. 2012 Adult learners in a novel environment use prestige-biased social learning. Evol. Psychol. 10, 519-537. (doi:10.1177/147470491201000309)
24. Cheng JT, Tracy JL, Henrich J. 2010 Pride, personality, and the evolutionary foundations of human social status. Evol. Hum. Behav. 31, 334-347. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.02.004)
25. Maybury-Lewis D. 1967 Akwe-Shavante society. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
26. Goldman I. 1970 Ancient Polynesian society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
27. Cheng J, Tracy J, Foulsham T, Kingstone A. 2013 Dual paths to power: evidence that dominance and prestige are distinct yet viable avenues to social status. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 104, 103-125. (doi:10.1037/a0030398)
28. Gintis H, Smith EA, Bowles S. 2001 Costly signaling and cooperation. J. Theor. Biol. 213, 103-119. (doi:10.1006/jtbi.2001.2406)
29. Hooper PL, Kaplan HS, Boone JL. 2010 A theory of leadership in human cooperative groups. J. Theor. Biol. 265, 633-646. (doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.05.034)
30. von Rueden CR, Gurven M. 2012 When the strong punish: Why net costs of punishment are often negligible. Behav. Brain Sci. 35, 43-44. (doi:10.1017/S0140525X11001427)
31. O’Gorman R, Henrich J, Van Vugt M. 2009 Constraining free riding in public goods games: designated solitary punishers can sustain human cooperation. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 323-329. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1082)
32. Kafashan S, Sparks A, Griskevicius V, Barclay P. 2014 Prosocial behavior and social status. In The psychology of social status (eds JT Cheng, JL Tracy, C Anderson), pp. 139-158. New York, NY: Springer.
33. Chudek M, Zhao W, Henrich J. 2013 Culture-gene coevolution, large-scale cooperation and the shaping of human social psychology. In Signaling, commitment, and emotion (eds R Joyce, K Sterelny, B Calcott), pp. 425-458. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
34. Henrich J. 2004 Cultural group selection, coevolutionary processes and large-scale cooperation. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 53, 3-35. (doi:10.1016/S0167-2681(03)00094-5)
35. Richerson P, Boyd R. 2005 Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
36. King AJ, Johnson DDP, Van Vugt M. 2009 The origins and evolution of leadership. Curr. Biol. 19, R911-R916. (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.027)
37. Laland KN, Odling-Smee J, Myles S. 2010 How culture shaped the human genome: bringing genetics and the human sciences together. Nat. Rev. Genet. 11, 137-148. (doi:10.1038/nrg2734)
38. Boyd R, Richerson PJ, Henrich J. 2011 The cultural niche: why social learning is essential for human adaptation. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 10918-10925. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1100290108)
39. Tracy JL, Shariff AF, Zhao W, Henrich J. 2013 Crosscultural evidence that the pride expression is a universal automatic status signal. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 142, 163-180. (doi:10.1037/a0028412)
40. Johnson RT, Burk JA, Kirkpatrick LA. 2007 Dominance and prestige as differential predictors of aggression and testosterone levels in men. Evol. Hum. Behav. 28, 345-351. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.04.003)
41. von Rueden C, Gurven M, Kaplan H. 2008 The multiple dimensions of male social status in an Amazonian society. Evol. Hum. Behav. 29, 402-415. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.05.001)
42. Kim G, Kwak K. 2011 Uncertainty matters: impact of stimulus ambiguity on infant social referencing. Infant Child Dev. 20, 449-463. (doi:10.1002/icd.708)
43. Stenberg G. 2009 Selectivity in infant social referencing. Infancy 14, 457-473. (doi:10.1080/15250000902994115)
44. Harris PL, Corriveau KH. 2011 Young children’s selective trust in informants. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 366, 1179-1187. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0321)
45. Chudek M, Brosseau P, Birch S, Henrich J. 2013 Culture-gene coevolutionary theory and children’s selective social learning. In The development of social cognition (eds M Banaji, S Gelman). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
46. Mesoudi A. 2009 How cultural evolutionary theory can inform social psychology and vice versa. Psychol. Rev. 116, 929-952. (doi:10.1037/a0017062)
47. Henrich J, Broesch J. 2011 On the nature of cultural transmission networks: evidence from Fijian villages for adaptive learning biases. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 366, 1139-1148. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0323)
48. Birch SAJ, Vauthier SA, Bloom P. 2008 Three- and four-year-olds spontaneously use others’ past performance to guide their learning. Cognition 107, 1018-1034. (doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.12.008)
49. Birch SAJ, Akmal N, Frampton KL. 2010 Two-yearolds are vigilant of others’ non-verbal cues to credibility. Dev. Sci. 13, 363-369. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00906.x)
50. Jaswal VK, Malone LS. 2007 Turning believers into skeptics: 3-year-olds’ sensitivity to cues to speaker credibility. J. Cogn. Dev. 8, 263-283. (doi:10.1080/15248370701446392)
51. Martens JP, Tracy JL. 2013 The emotional origins of a social learning bias: does the pride expression cue copying? Soc. Psychol. Pers. Sci. 4, 492-499. (doi:10.1177/1948550612457958)
52. James PA, Mitchell G, Bogwitz M, Lindeman GJ. 2013 The Angelina Jolie effect. Med. J. Australia 199, 646. (doi:10.5694/mja13.11218)
53. Evans DGR et al. 2014 The Angelina Jolie effect: how high celebrity profile can have a major impact on provision of cancer related services. Breast Cancer Res 16, 442. (doi:10.1186/s13058-014-0442-6)
54. Wit J. 1999 Social learning in a common interest voting game. Games Econ. Behav. 26, 131-156. (doi:10.1006/game.1998.0634)
55. Carpenter J. 2004 When in Rome: conformity and the provision of public goods. J. Socio-Econ. 4, 395-408. (doi:10.1016/j.socec.2004.04.009)
56. Fowler JH, Christakis NA. 2010 Cooperative behavior cascades in human social networks. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 5334-5338. (doi:10.1073/pnas.0913149107)
57. Smith JM, Bell PA. 1994 Conformity as a determinant of behavior in a resource dilemma. J. Soc. Psychol. 134, 191-200. (doi:10.1080/00224545.1994.9711382)
58. Henrich N, Henrich J. 2007 Why humans cooperate: a cultural and evolutionary explanation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
59. Salali GD, Juda M, Henrich J. 2015 Transmission and development of costly punishment in children. Evol. Hum. Behav. 36, 86-94. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2014.09.004)
60. Rushton JP, Campbell AC. 1977 Modeling, vicarious reinforcement and extraversion on blood donating in adults. Immediate and long-term effects. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 7, 297-306. (doi:10.1002/ejsp.2420070304)
61. Rosenbaum M, Blake RR. 1955 The effect of stimulus and background factors on the volunteering response. J. Abnorm. Soc. Psychol. 50, 193-196. (doi:10.1037/h0042232)
62. Mullen B, Cooper C, Driskell JE. 1990 Jaywalking as a function of model behavior. Pers. Soc. Psychol. B 16, 320-330. (doi:10.1177/0146167290162012)
63. Bryan JH, Test MA. 1967 Models and helping: naturalistic studies in aiding behavior. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 6, 400-407. (doi:10.1037/h0024826)
64. Laland KN. 2004 Social learning strategies. Learn. Behav. 32, 4-14. (doi:10.3758/BF03196002)
65. Boyd R, Richerson PJ. 1995 Why does culture increase adaptability? Ethol. Sociobiol. 16, 125-143. (doi:10.1016/0162-3095(94)00073-G)
66. Richerson PJ, Boyd R. 1978 A dual inheritance model of the human evolutionary process I: basic postulates and a simple model. J. Social Biol. Struct. 1, 127-154. (doi:10.1016/S0140-1750(78)80002-5)
67. Allison PD. 1992 Cultural relatedness under oblique and horizontal transmission rules. Ethol. Sociobiol. 13, 153-169. (doi:10.1016/0162-3095(92)90031-X)
68. Lehmann L, Feldman MW, Foster KR. 2008 Cultural transmission can inhibit the evolution of altruistic helping. Am. Nat. 172, 12-24. (doi:10.1086/587851)
69. McElreath R, Boyd R. 2007 Modeling the evolution of social behavior. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
70. Queller DC. 1992 A general model for kin selection. Evolution 46, 376-380. (doi:10.2307/2409858)
71. Fletcher JA, Doebeli M. 2009 A simple and general explanation for the evolution of altruism. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 13-19. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0829)
72. Hamilton WD. 1975 Innate social aptitudes of man: an approach from evolutionary genetics. In Biosocial anthropology (ed. R Fox), pp. 133-156. London, UK: Malaby Press.
73. Henrich J, Tennie C. In press. Cultural evolution in chimpanzees and humans. In Chimpanzees and human evolution (eds M Muller, R Wrangham, D Pilbream). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
74. Lindstrom L. 1990 Big men as ancestors—inspiration and copyrights on Tanna (Vanuatu). Ethnology 29, 313-326. (doi:10.2307/3773601)
75. Gachter S, Nosenzo D, Renner E, Sefton M. 2012 Who makes a good leader? Cooperativeness, optimism, and leading-by-example. Econ. Inq. 50, 953-967. (doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.2010.00295.x)
76. Potters J, Sefton M, Vesterlund L. 2007 Leading-byexample and signaling in voluntary contribution games: An experimental study. Econ. Theory 33, 169-182. (doi:10.1007/s00199-006-0186-3)
77. Potters J, Sefton M, Vesterlund L. 2005 After you—endogenous sequencing in voluntary contribution games. J. Public Econ. 89, 1399-1419. (doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2004.02.008)
78. Guth W, Levati MV, Sutter M, Van der Heijden E. 2007 Leading by example with and without exclusion power in voluntary contribution experiments. J. Public Econ. 91, 1023-1042. (doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2006.10.007)
79. Cartwright E, Gillet J, Van Vugt M. 2009 Leadership by example in a weak-link game. Econ. Inq. 51, 2028-2043. (doi:10.1111/ecin.12003)
80. Eckel CC, Fatas E, Wilson R. 2010 Cooperation and status in organizations. J. Public Econ. Theory 12, 737-762. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9779.2010.01472.x)
81. Cartwright E, Gillet J, Van Vugt M. 2013 Leadership by example in the weak-link game. Econ. Inq. 51, 2028-2043. (doi:10.1111/ecin.12003)
82. Kumru CS, Vesterlund L. 2010 The effect of status on charitable giving. J. Public Econ. Theory 12, 709-735. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-9779.2010.01471.x)
83. Perreault C, Moya C, Boyd R. 2012 A Bayesian approach to the evolution of social learning. Evol. Hum. Behav. 33, 449-459. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2011.12.007)
84. Muthukrishna M, Morgan TJH, Henrich J. In press. The when and who of social learning and conformist transmission. Evol. Hum. Behav. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.05.004)
85. Henrich J. 2009 The evolution of costly displays, cooperation, and religion: credibility enhancing displays and their implications for cultural evolution. Evol. Hum. Behav. 30, 244-260. (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.03.005)