An evolutionary perspective on the long-term efficiency of costly punishment

Abstract Developing an evolutionary perspective towards the changing anatomy of the banking sector reveals the enduring tensions and contradictions between spatial centralisation and the possibilities for decentralisation before, during and after the British banking crisis. The shift from banking boom to crisis in 2007 is conceptualised as a significant and on-going moment in the long-term evolution of the historical institutional–spatial dominance of London over other city-regions in Britain. The analysis demonstrates the importance of the institutional and geographical legacies of the British national political economy and variegation of capitalism established in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in shaping contemporary geographical outcomes. Regulatory changes combined with financial innovation in the latter years of the twentieth century to create an opportunity for English regional and Scottish banks excluded from previous institutional–spatial centralisation to expand excessively and consequently several failed in the banking crisis. The paper considers the future trajectory of institutional–spatial centralisation in the banking sector amidst the continued spatial restructuring of the banking crisis, involving a re-drawing of organisational boundaries, overlapping institutional and technological changes and unprecedented uncertainty about the impact of Brexit on Britain’s wider political and economic landscape.

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Preliminary evidence for an aversion to atheists in long-term mating domains in the Southern United States

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships ◽

10.1177/02654075211045051 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 026540752110450

Author(s):

Mitch Brown

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Southern United States ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Short Term ◽

Physically Attractive

The centrality of religiosity in selecting long-term mates suggests atheism could be undesirable for that context. Given recent findings suggesting several positive stereotypes about atheists, a largely distrusted group, individuals could prefer atheists in mating domains not emphasizing long-term commitment (i.e., short-term mating). Two studies tasked U.S. participants with evaluating long-term and short-term mating desirability of theists and atheists while assessing perceptions of their personalities. Study 1 indicated atheists were more desirable in short-term mating than long-term mating, though this preference did not translate to being preferred over theists. The pre-registered Study 2 demonstrated this effect is specific to physically attractive targets. Atheists were further perceived as more prone to infidelity, especially when attractive. Results are framed from an evolutionary perspective while discussing anti-atheist prejudice.

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Men’s Perception of Raped Women: Test of the Sexually Transmitted Disease Hypothesis and the Cuckoldry Hypothesis

European Journal of Ecology ◽

10.1515/eje-2016-0001 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Pavol Prokop ◽

Ladislav Pekárik

Keyword(s):

Sexually Transmitted Diseases ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Sexually Transmitted Disease ◽

Transmitted Disease ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Negative Perception ◽

Sexually Transmitted ◽

Paternity Uncertainty ◽

Mating Opportunities

AbstractRape is a recurrent adaptive problem of female humans and females of a number of non-human animals. Rape has various physiological and reproductive costs to the victim. The costs of rape are furthermore exaggerated by social rejection and blaming of a victim, particularly by men. The negative perception of raped women by men has received little attention from an evolutionary perspective. Across two independent studies, we investigated whether the risk of sexually transmitted diseases (the STD hypothesis, Hypothesis 1) or paternity uncertainty (the cuckoldry hypothesis, Hypothesis 2) influence the negative perception of raped women by men. Raped women received lower attractiveness score than non-raped women, especially in long-term mate attractiveness score. The perceived attractiveness of raped women was not influenced by the presence of experimentally manipulated STD cues on faces of putative rapists. Women raped by three men received lower attractiveness score than women raped by one man. These results provide stronger support for the cuckoldry hypothesis (Hypothesis 2) than for the STD hypothesis (Hypothesis 1). Single men perceived raped women as more attractive than men in a committed relationship (Hypothesis 3), suggesting that the mating opportunities mediate men’s perception of victims of rape. Overall, our results suggest that the risk of cuckoldry underlie the negative perception of victims of rape by men rather than the fear of disease transmission.

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Connect and Strive to Survive and Thrive: The Evolutionary Meaning of Communion and Agency

10.31234/osf.io/uv59h ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Todd Chan ◽

Iris Wang ◽

Oscar Ybarra

Keyword(s):

Social World ◽

Two Dimensions ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Knowing How ◽

The Social ◽

And Behavior

Humans have a universal drive to understand other people’s intentions and behavior. From an evolutionary perspective, being perceptive about others in the social world—especially strangers—comes with a host of benefits that promote survival (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992). People need to decide whether a person poses a threat or an opportunity, and quickly and accurately enough. Fortunately, humans have a well-developed, parsimonious method for perceiving others, where individuals and situations that we encounter are quickly evaluated under two dimensions, known as communion and agency.In this chapter, we start by defining what these two fundamental dimensions refer to in the context of person evaluation, and we provide evidence that people, across culture and contexts, readily evaluate people with this communion-agency lens. Then, we explain how these two dimensions provide functional benefits in how effectively people can (a) connect with others and (b) reach one’s goals – two core human motivations related to survival. Finally, we illustrate how knowing how communal and agentic other people are can confer specific benefits for solving three recurring evolutionary challenges: acquiring status, long-term mating, and reproducing.

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Chaos or ReOrder? The Future of Hegemony in a World-System in Upheaval

Journal of World-Systems Research ◽

10.5195/jwsr.2005.390 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 209-238 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joachim Karl Rennstich

Keyword(s):

Future Development ◽

Power Distribution ◽

High Probability ◽

System Development ◽

World System ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Global System ◽

Distributional Patterns ◽

The Future

Observing the latest trends of a rise in interest in the development of power distribution in a world-system created and dominated by states but increasingly challenged as such, this paper takes a deeper look at the historical evolution of this system, its current transformation, and likely future development. After a brief discussion of prevalent concepts of world(-)system development and its socio-political control, this work offers an evolutionary perspective to place current changes of power and its distribution in the dynamic long-term development of global system formation. It then presents alternative visions of the future development of political and economic hegemony. It concludes that a further rise in instability of global political power distribution accompanied by a likely challenge to existing distributional patterns has a high probability of occurrence.

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Preliminary Evidence for Aversion to Atheists in Long-Term Mating Domains

10.31234/osf.io/gu7xy ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mitch Brown

Keyword(s):

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Short Term ◽

Physically Attractive

The centrality of religiosity in selecting long-term mates suggests the espousal of atheism could be undesirable for that context. Given recent findings suggesting the presence of several positive stereotypes about atheists, a largely distrusted group, it could be possible individuals prefer atheists in mating domains not emphasizing long-term commitment (i.e., short-term mating). I conducted two studies tasking participants with evaluating long-term and short-term mating desirability of theists and atheists while assessing perceptions of their personalities. Study 1 indicated atheists were perceived as more desirable in short-term mating than long-term mating, though this preference did not translate to being preferred in that context over theists. Study 2 demonstrated this effect is specific to physically attractive targets. I further found atheists were perceived as more prone to infidelity, especially if they were attractive. I frame results from an evolutionary perspective while discussing the pervasiveness of anti-atheist prejudice.

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Love and Attachment: The Psychobiology of Social Bonding

CNS Spectrums ◽

10.1017/s1092852900025384 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 239-242 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Dan J. Stein ◽

Bavanisha Vythilingum

Keyword(s):

Animal Studies ◽

Social Bonds ◽

Romantic Love ◽

Social Bonding ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Imaging Studies ◽

Neuronal Circuitry ◽

Environmental Variations ◽

Maternal Love

ABSTRACTBasic animal studies and human imaging studies have contributed to our understanding of the psychobiology of love and attachment. There are overlaps and distinctions in the neuronal circuitry of maternal love, romantic love, and long-term attachment. In these circuits, important molecules, which have been demonstrated to play a role in the psychobiology of social bonding include dopamine, serotonin, opioids, oxytocin, and vasopressin. Particular genetic and environmental variations contribute to social-bonding phenotypes, consistent with an evolutionary perspective on the value of these behaviors. Advances in the psychobiology of social bonds have led to hypotheses about the pharmacotherapy of disorders of attachment.

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An Evolutionary Perspective on the Interaction of Age and Sex Differences in Short-Term Sexual Strategies

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.2002.90.3.949 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 90 (3) ◽

pp. 949-956 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Eugene W. Mathes ◽

Christina A. King ◽

Jonathan K. Miller ◽

Ruth M. Reed

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Sex Difference ◽

Mating Strategies ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Short Term ◽

Sexual Strategies ◽

Men And Women ◽

Sexual Strategies Theory ◽

Age And Sex

Buss and Schmitt's sexual strategies theory (1993) suggests that short-term mating represents a larger component of men's than women's mating strategies. Assuming this sex difference there is potential for conflict. Symons argued that, because men are more interested in copulation than women, this gives women greater power in establishing conditions (short- vs long-term) under which copulation takes place. The result is that the conflict in sexual strategies is resolved in favor of women's relatively greater interest in long-term sexual strategies. This research tested the hypothesis that across ages men would decrease in desire to employ short-term mating strategies in favor of long-term mating strategies. Specifically, in Study I, men and women in their teens, twenties, and thirties or older were given a measure of desire for a committed relationship. It was predicted that women, regardless of age, would score high on desire for a committed relationship. In contrast, teenage boys would score low on desire for a committed relationship while men in their thirties or older would score as high as the women. In Study II both sexes in their teens, twenties, and thirties or older were given measures of desire for promiscuous sex. It was predicted that the women, regardless of age, would score low on desire for promiscuous sex. In contrast, teenage boys would score high on desire for promiscuous sex while men in their thirties or older would score as low as the women. Support was found for both predictions.

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Primate Infancies

The Cultural Nature of Attachment ◽

10.7551/mitpress/9780262036900.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Kristen Hawkes ◽

James S. Chisholm ◽

Lynn A. Fairbanks ◽

Johannes Johow ◽

Elfriede Kalcher-Sommersguter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Events ◽

Early Life ◽

Recent Experience ◽

Social Forces ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Long Term Effects ◽

Human Infants ◽

Early Life Events ◽

Mothering Style

Bowlby recognized that studying other primates could help identify the needs of human infants; his evolutionary perspective has had a wide impact on understanding of human development. Much more is now known about evolutionary processes and variation, within and between species. This chapter reviews aspects of evolutionary theory and primatology relevant to Bowlby’s theory of attachment. Beginning with primate phylogeny, ecological and social forces that contribute to the varieties of primate sociality are considered and some reasons canvassed that explain why primatologists do not all agree on the choice of words to describe the relationships between animals, including use of the term “attachment.” Variations and commonalities are identified and used to explore how development in human infants can be understood in terms of social relationships and maturational state at birth and weaning compared to other primates. Infant experience has long-term effects in primates other than humans. Some of that evidence is summarized and special attention is given to interactions between particular chimpanzee mothers and infants in an unusual setting, where trusting relationships between mothers and human researchers reveal variations in mothering style that appear to result from early life events, recent experience, and social context.

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Mother-in-law daughter-in-law conflict: An evolutionary perspective, ethnographic review, and report of empirical data from the United States

10.31234/osf.io/uvcp4 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jessica Daphne Ayers ◽

Jaimie Krems ◽

Nicole Hess ◽

Athena Aktipis

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Empirical Data ◽

The United States ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Future Research ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Kinship Networks ◽

Pair Bonds ◽

Term Pair

Relationships with genetic relatives have been extensively studied in the evolutionary social sciences, but affinal relationships have received much less attention, and virtually no work has examined both cooperation and conflict among affines from an evolutionary perspective. Yet humans have extensive interactions with the kin of their mates, i.e., in-laws or affines, as humans form long-term pair bonds with mates, with both sexes investing heavily in resulting offspring, thus leading to many opportunities for interacting with extended kinship networks. To begin to address the gap in scholarship on affinal bonds, and particularly on affinal conflict, we conducted an ethnographic review and collected empirical data on (cooperation and) conflict among affines. Here we present (1) a sample 37 of ethnographies showing cross-cultural evidence of conflict in affinal relationships. We also report (2) empirical evidence of self-reported (cooperative and) conflictual aspects in affinal relationships in a Western sample. U.S. men and women both reported more conflict with mothers-in-law than with mothers, and mothers reported more conflict with their daughters-in-law than with their daughters. We discuss the implications of this work and directions for future research.

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