Hamilton’s rule in economic decision-making

Moshe Levy and Andrew Lo ()
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Moshe Levy: a School of Business, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91905, Israel;

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, vol. 119, issue 16, e2108590119

Abstract: Kin selection—helping genetically related individuals even at a cost to oneself—can be evolutionarily advantageous. This is the main theoretical explanation for altruism in the natural world. Hamilton’s rule provides a simple algebraic relationship that captures this profound idea. While behavior consistent with Hamilton’s rule has been observed in many species, a direct and sharp test of this rule has not yet been performed. In this paper, we employ techniques borrowed from experimental economics to test the predictions of Hamilton’s rule. We find strong support for the rule. This result sheds light on the dominant role played by evolutionary biology in explaining human behavior.

Keywords: Hamilton’s rule; experimental economics; altruism; evolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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