Goodman Jonathan R, Crema Enrico, Nolan Francis, Cohen Emma, Foley Robert A
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Fitzwilliam St, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK.
Phonetics Laboratory, 5 West Rd, Cambridge CB3 9DP, UK.
Evol Hum Sci. 2024 Nov 20;6:e46. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2024.36. eCollection 2024.
Previous research in the evolutionary and psychological sciences has suggested that markers or tags of ethnic or group membership may help to solve cooperation and coordination problems. Cheating remains, however, a problem for these views, insofar as it is possible to fake the tag. While evolutionary psychologists have suggested that humans evolved the propensity to overcome this free rider problem, it is unclear how this module might manifest at the group level. In this study, we investigate the degree to which native and non-native speakers of accents - which are candidates for tags of group membership - spoken in the UK and Ireland can detect mimicry. We find that people are, overall, better than chance at detecting mimicry, and secondly we find substantial inter-group heterogeneity, suggesting that cultural evolutionary processes drive the manifestations of cheater detection. We discuss alternative explanations and suggest avenues of further inquiry.
进化与心理科学领域之前的研究表明，种族或群体成员身份的标记或标签可能有助于解决合作与协调问题。然而，欺骗仍然是这些观点面临的一个问题，因为标签有可能被伪造。虽然进化心理学家认为人类进化出了克服这种搭便车问题的倾向，但尚不清楚这种机制在群体层面会如何表现。在本研究中，我们调查了在英国和爱尔兰所说的口音（群体成员身份标签的候选因素）的母语者和非母语者能够检测出模仿行为的程度。我们发现，总体而言，人们在检测模仿行为方面比随机猜测要好，其次，我们发现了显著的群体间异质性，这表明文化进化过程推动了欺骗检测的表现。我们讨论了其他解释，并提出了进一步探究的途径。
