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Evolution of indirect reciprocity

Abstract

Natural selection is conventionally assumed to favour the strong and selfish who maximize their own resources at the expense of others. But many biological systems, and especially human societies, are organized around altruistic, cooperative interactions. How can natural selection promote unselfish behaviour? Various mechanisms have been proposed, and a rich analysis of indirect reciprocity has recently emerged: I help you and somebody else helps me. The evolution of cooperation by indirect reciprocity leads to reputation building, morality judgement and complex social interactions with ever-increasing cognitive demands.

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Figure 1: Direct and indirect reciprocity.
Figure 2: Building a reputation.
Figure 3: Two problems with indirect reciprocity. B has defected in previous rounds and therefore has a low reputation.

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Acknowledgements

Support from the John Templeton Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University is sponsored by Jeffrey Epstein.

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Correspondence to Karl Sigmund.

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Nowak, M., Sigmund, K. Evolution of indirect reciprocity. Nature 437, 1291–1298 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04131

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