Invariances in the architecture of pride across small-scale societies

Daniel Sznycer, Dimitris Xygalatas, Sarah Alami, Xiao-Fen An, Kristina I. Ananyeva, Shintaro Fukushima, Hidefumi Hitokoto, Alexander N. Kharitonov, Jeremy M. Koster, Charity N. Onyishi, Ike E. Onyishi, Pedro Romero, Kosuke Takemura, Jin-Ying Zhuang, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby
Additional contact information
Daniel Sznycer: b Center for Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-9660;
Dimitris Xygalatas: c Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269;
Sarah Alami: d Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3210;
Xiao-Fen An: e School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University , Shanghai 200062, China ;
Kristina I. Ananyeva: f Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences , 129366 Moscow, Russia ;
Shintaro Fukushima: g School of Cultural and Creative Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University , Tokyo 150-8366, Japan ;
Hidefumi Hitokoto: h Faculty of Humanities, Fukuoka University , Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan ;
Alexander N. Kharitonov: f Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences , 129366 Moscow, Russia ;
Jeremy M. Koster: j Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology , 04103 Leipzig, Germany ;
Charity N. Onyishi: k Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria , 41000 Nsukka, Nigeria ;
Ike E. Onyishi: l Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria , 41000 Nsukka, Nigeria ;
Kosuke Takemura: n Faculty of Economics, Shiga University , Shiga 522-8522, Japan ;
Jin-Ying Zhuang: e School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University , Shanghai 200062, China ;
Leda Cosmides: b Center for Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-9660;
John Tooby: o Center for Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3210

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, vol. 115, issue 33, 8322

Abstract:

Becoming valuable to fellow group members so that one would attract assistance in times of need is a major adaptive problem. To solve it, the individual needs a predictive map of the degree to which others value different acts so that, in choosing how to act, the payoff arising from others’ valuation of a potential action (e.g., showing bandmates that one is a skilled forager by pursuing a hard-to-acquire prey item) can be added to the direct payoff of the action (e.g., gaining the nutrients of the prey captured). The pride system seems to incorporate all of the elements necessary to solve this adaptive problem. Importantly, data from western(-ized), educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies indicate close quantitative correspondences between pride and the valuations of audiences. Do those results generalize beyond industrial mass societies? To find out, we conducted an experiment among 567 participants in 10 small-scale societies scattered across Central and South America, Africa, and Asia: ( i ) Bosawás Reserve, Nicaragua; ( ii ) Cotopaxi, Ecuador; ( iii ) Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco; ( iv ) Enugu, Nigeria; ( v ) Le Morne, Mauritius; ( vi ) La Gaulette, Mauritius; ( vii ) Tuva, Russia; ( viii ) Shaanxi and Henan, China; ( ix ) farming communities in Japan; and ( x ) fishing communities in Japan. Despite widely varying languages, cultures, and subsistence modes, pride in each community closely tracked the valuation of audiences locally (mean r = +0.66) and even across communities (mean r = +0.29). This suggests that the pride system not only develops the same functional architecture everywhere but also operates with a substantial degree of universality in its content.

Keywords: cognition; emotion; cooperation; morality; culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:8322

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