Cross-cultural invariances in the architecture of shame

Daniel Sznycer, Dimitris Xygalatas, Elizabeth Agey, Sarah Alami, Xiao-Fen An, Kristina I. Ananyeva, Quentin D. Atkinson, Bernardo R. Broitman, Thomas J. Conte, Carola Flores, Shintaro Fukushima, Hidefumi Hitokoto, Alexander N. Kharitonov, Charity N. Onyishi, Ike E. Onyishi, Pedro Romero, Joshua M. Schrock, J. Josh Snodgrass, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Kosuke Takemura, Cathryn Townsend, Jin-Ying Zhuang, C. Athena Aktipis, Lee Cronk, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby
Additional contact information
Daniel Sznycer: c Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-9660;
Dimitris Xygalatas: d Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut , Storrs, CT 06269;
Elizabeth Agey: e Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3210;
Sarah Alami: e Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3210;
Xiao-Fen An: f School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University , Shanghai, 200062, China ;
Kristina I. Ananyeva: g Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences , 129366 Moscow, Russia ;
Quentin D. Atkinson: i Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History , D-07745 Jena, Germany ;
Bernardo R. Broitman: j Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas à ridas, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte , Coquimbo 1781681, Chile ;
Thomas J. Conte: k Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University , New Brunswick, NJ 08901;
Carola Flores: j Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas à ridas, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte , Coquimbo 1781681, Chile ;
Shintaro Fukushima: l School of Cultural and Creative Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University , 150-8366 Tokyo, Japan ;
Hidefumi Hitokoto: m Faculty of Humanities, Fukuoka University , Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan ;
Alexander N. Kharitonov: g Institute of Psychology, Russian Academy of Sciences , 129366 Moscow, Russia ;
Charity N. Onyishi: n Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Nigeria , 41000 Nsukka, Nigeria ;
Ike E. Onyishi: o Department of Psychology, University of Nigeria , 41000 Nsukka, Nigeria ;
Joshua M. Schrock: q Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon , Eugene, OR 97403;
J. Josh Snodgrass: q Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon , Eugene, OR 97403;
Lawrence S. Sugiyama: q Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon , Eugene, OR 97403;
Kosuke Takemura: r Faculty of Economics, Shiga University , Shiga 522-8522, Japan ;
Cathryn Townsend: k Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University , New Brunswick, NJ 08901;
Jin-Ying Zhuang: f School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University , Shanghai, 200062, China ;
C. Athena Aktipis: s Department of Psychology, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ 85287-1104
Lee Cronk: k Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University , New Brunswick, NJ 08901;
Leda Cosmides: c Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-9660;
John Tooby: e Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara , CA 93106-3210;

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, vol. 115, issue 39, 9702

Abstract:

Human foragers are obligately group-living, and their high dependence on mutual aid is believed to have characterized our species’ social evolution. It was therefore a central adaptive problem for our ancestors to avoid damaging the willingness of other group members to render them assistance. Cognitively, this requires a predictive map of the degree to which others would devalue the individual based on each of various possible acts. With such a map, an individual can avoid socially costly behaviors by anticipating how much audience devaluation a potential action (e.g., stealing) would cause and weigh this against the action’s direct payoff (e.g., acquiring). The shame system manifests all of the functional properties required to solve this adaptive problem, with the aversive intensity of shame encoding the social cost. Previous data from three Western(ized) societies indicated that the shame evoked when the individual anticipates committing various acts closely tracks the magnitude of devaluation expressed by audiences in response to those acts. Here we report data supporting the broader claim that shame is a basic part of human biology. We conducted an experiment among 899 participants in 15 small-scale communities scattered around the world. Despite widely varying languages, cultures, and subsistence modes, shame in each community closely tracked the devaluation of local audiences (mean r = +0.84). The fact that the same pattern is encountered in such mutually remote communities suggests that shame’s match to audience devaluation is a design feature crafted by selection and not a product of cultural contact or convergent cultural evolution.

Keywords: emotion; cognition; culture; cooperation; evolutionary psychology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nas:journl:v:115:y:2018:p:9702

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