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Nature 432, 449-450 (25 November 2004) | doi:10.1038/432449a; Published online 24 November 2004

Human behaviour: Don't lose your reputation

Ernst Fehr1

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Collective action in large groups whose members are genetically unrelated is a distinguishing feature of the human species. Individual reputations may be a key to a satisfactory evolutionary explanation.

When the Allied forces invaded Normandy during the Second World War, thousands of people were involved in the preparations and in the invasion itself; a similar number of Germans were probably involved in defending the occupied territory. War is a prime example of large-scale within-group cooperation between genetically unrelated individuals (Fig. 1

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