Silva Antonio S, Mace Ruth
Department of Anthropology, University College London London, UK.
Front Psychol. 2015 Nov 27;6:1790. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01790. eCollection 2015.
The idea that cooperative groups out-compete less cooperative groups has been proposed as a theoretical possibility for the evolution of cooperation through cultural group selection. Previous studies have found an association between increased cooperation and exposure to inter-group violence, but most have not been able to identify the specific target of cooperation and are based on correlational data making it difficult to establish causality. In this study we test the hypothesis that inter-group conflict promotes parochial altruism (i.e., in-group altruism and out-group hostility) by using longitudinal data of a real-world measure of cooperation-charity and school donations-sampled before, during and after violent sectarian riots between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We find that conflict is associated with reductions in all types of cooperation, with reduced donations to a neutral charity, and both in-group and out-group primary schools. After the conflict, both in-group and out-group donations increased again. In this context we find no evidence that inter-group conflict promotes parochial altruism.
合作群体比不那么合作的群体更具竞争力，这一观点已被提出，作为通过文化群体选择实现合作进化的一种理论可能性。先前的研究发现合作增加与群体间暴力暴露之间存在关联，但大多数研究未能确定合作的具体目标，且基于相关数据，难以确立因果关系。在本研究中，我们通过使用在北爱尔兰贝尔法斯特天主教徒和新教徒之间发生宗派暴力骚乱之前、期间和之后抽样的合作——慈善和学校捐赠这一现实世界衡量标准的纵向数据，来检验群体间冲突促进狭隘利他主义（即群体内利他主义和群体外敌意）这一假设。我们发现冲突与各类合作的减少相关，包括对中立慈善机构、群体内和群体外小学的捐赠减少。冲突过后，群体内和群体外的捐赠再次增加。在此背景下，我们没有发现证据表明群体间冲突会促进狭隘利他主义。
