Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Parochial altruism in humans

Nature volume 442, pages 912–915 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Social norms and the associated altruistic behaviours are decisive for the evolution of human cooperation1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and the maintenance of social order10, and they affect family life, politics11 and economic interactions12. However, as altruistic norm compliance and norm enforcement often emerge in the context of inter-group conflicts13,14, they are likely to be shaped by parochialism15—a preference for favouring the members of one's ethnic, racial or language group. We have conducted punishment experiments16, which allow ‘impartial’ observers to punish norm violators, with indigenous groups in Papua New Guinea. Here we show that these experiments confirm the prediction of parochialism. We found that punishers protect ingroup victims—who suffer from a norm violation—much more than they do outgroup victims, regardless of the norm violator's group affiliation. Norm violators also expect that punishers will be lenient if the latter belong to their social group. As a consequence, norm violations occur more often if the punisher and the norm violator belong to the same group. Our results are puzzling for evolutionary multi-level selection theories based on selective group extinction2,3,4,5 as well as for theories of individual selection17,18,19; they also indicate the need to explicitly examine the interactions between individuals stemming from different groups in evolutionary models.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Punishment pattern across conditions in the third-party punishment game.
Figure 2: The punishment threat for the lowest transfer level as perceived by the dictators.
Figure 3: Dictators' transfers and perceived punishment threats if the third party belongs to the dictator's group.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Sober, E. & Wilson, D. S. Unto Others—The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gintis, H. Strong reciprocity and human sociality. J. Theor. Biol. 206, 169–179 (2000)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Henrich, J. & Boyd, R. Why people punish defectors–weak conformist transmission can stabilize costly enforcement of norms in cooperative dilemmas. J. Theor. Biol. 208, 79–89 (2001)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Boyd, R., Gintis, H., Bowles, S. & Richerson, P. J. The evolution of altruistic punishment. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 3531–3535 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Bowles, S., Choi, J.-K. & Astrid, H. The coevolution of individual behaviors and group level institutions. J. Theor. Biol. 223, 135–147 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Sigmund, K., Hauert, C. & Nowak, M. A. Reward and punishment. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 98, 10757–10762 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Fehr, E. & Gächter, S. Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature 415, 137–140 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Milinski, M., Semmann, D. & Krambeck, H. J. Reputation helps solve the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Nature 415, 424–426 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Nowak, M. A. & Sigmund, K. Evolution of indirect reciprocity. Nature 437, 1291–1298 (2005)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Elster, J. The Cement of Society—A Study of Social Order (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1989)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  11. Lindbeck, A., Nyberg, S. & Weibull, J. W. Social norms and economic incentives in the welfare state. Q. J. Econ. 114, 1–35 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Stutzer, A. & Lalive, R. The role of social work norms in job searching and subjective well-being. J. Eur. Econ. Assoc. 2, 696–719 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Otterbein, K. F. The Evolution of War: A Cross-Cultural Study (Human Relations Area Files Press, New Haven, 1985)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Bornstein, G. Intergroup conflict: Individual, group, and collective interests. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 7, 129–145 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Bowles, S. & Choi, J.-K. in Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity (ed. Parijs, P. V.) 81–97 (Franqui Scientific Library, Brussels, 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Fehr, E. & Fischbacher, U. Third-party punishment and social norms. Evol. Hum. Behav. 25, 63–87 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Hamilton, W. D. Genetical evolution of social behaviour I & II. J. Theor. Biol. 7, 1–25, 26–52 (1964)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Trivers, R. L. Evolution of reciprocal altruism. Q. Rev. Biol. 46, 35–57 (1971)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Nowak, M. A. & Sigmund, K. Evolution of indirect reciprocity by image scoring. Nature 393, 573–577 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Fehr, E. & Fischbacher, U. The nature of human altruism. Nature 425, 785–791 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Kaplan, H. & Gurven, M. in Moral Sentiments and Material Interests—The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life (eds Gintis, H., Bowles, S. & Boyd, R.) 75–113 (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Boehm, C. Egalitarian behavior and reverse dominance hierarchy. Curr. Anthropol. 34, 227–254 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Wiessner, P. Norm enforcement among the Ju/'hoansi bushmen: A case of strong reciprocity? Hum. Nat. 16, 115–145 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Henrich, J. et al. In search of homo economicus: behavioural experiments in 15 small-scale societies. Am. Econ. Rev. 91, 73–78 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Shinada, M., Yamagishi, T. & Ohmura, Y. False friends are worse than bitter enemies: “Altruistic” punishment of in-group members. Evol. Hum. Behav. 25, 379–393 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Tajfel, H., Billig, M., Bundy, R. & Flament, C. Social categorization in intergroup behaviour. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 1, 149–178 (1971)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Brewer, M. In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychol. Bull. 86, 307–324 (1979)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Rabbie, J. M., Schot, J. C. & Visser, L. Social identity theory: A conceptual and empirical critique from the perspective of a behavioural interaction model. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 19, 171–202 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Yamagishi, T., Jin, N. & Kiyonari, T. in Advances in Group Processes (eds Thye, S. R., Lawler, E. J., Macy, M. W. & Walker, H. A.) 161–197 (JAI Press, Stamford, 1999)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Kaplan, H. & Hill, K. Food Sharing among Ache foragers: Tests of explanatory hypotheses. Curr. Anthropol. 26, 223–246 (1985)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Wiessner, P. & Tumu, A. Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual, and Warfare in Papua New Guinea (Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC, 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Henrich, J et al. Costly punishment across human societies. Science (in the press)

Download references

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the Research Priority Program ‘Foundations of Human Social Behaviour–Altruism versus Egoism’ at the University of Zurich. Financial support from the MacArthur Foundation (Network on Economic Environments and the Evolution of Individual Preferences and Social Norms) and the Cogito Foundation is also acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Zurich, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, Zurich, Blumlisalpstrasse 10, CH-8006, Switzerland

    Helen Bernhard, Urs Fischbacher & Ernst Fehr

  2. Collegium Helveticum, Schmelzbergstrasse 25, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Ernst Fehr

Authors
  1. Helen Bernhard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Urs Fischbacher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ernst Fehr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Urs Fischbacher or Ernst Fehr.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Notes

This file contains supplementary information, including Supplementary Figures 1–3, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Methods and six references. (PDF 309 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bernhard, H., Fischbacher, U. & Fehr, E. Parochial altruism in humans. Nature 442, 912–915 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04981

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04981

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing