Evolutionary psychology, economic freedom, trade and benevolence
Open Access
- 1 June 2019
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH in Review of Economic Perspectives
- Vol. 19 (2), 73-94
- https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2019-0005
Abstract
Our thesis is that the reason many of us today are inclined toward socialism (explicit cooperation) and against laissez-faire capitalism (implicit cooperation) is because the first type of behavior was much more genetically beneficial during previous generations of our species. There is, however, a seemingly strong argument against this hypothesis: evidence from human prehistory indicates that trade (implicit cooperation) previously was widespread. How, then, can we be hard-wired in favor of socialism and against capitalism if our ancestors were engaged in market behavior in past millennia? Although trade which is self-centered and beneficial (presumably mutually beneficial to all parties in the exchange) did indeed appear hundreds of thousands of years ago, benevolence was established in our hard-wiring very substantially earlier, literally hundreds of millions of years ago, and is therefore far more deeply integrated into the human psyche.Keywords
This publication has 52 references indexed in Scilit:
- The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomesNature, 2012
- Inter-relationships among behavioral markers, genes, brain and treatment in dyslexia and dysgraphiaFuture Neurology, 2010
- Number as a cognitive technology: Evidence from Pirahã language and cognitionCognition, 2008
- Do capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella ) use tokens as symbols?Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2007
- Token mediated tool exchange between tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)Animal Cognition, 2007
- Spread of arbitrary conventions among chimpanzees: a controlled experimentProceedings. Biological sciences, 2006
- Responses to a simple barter task in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytesPrimates, 2005
- Reciprocal altruism between male vampire bats, Desmodus rotundusAnimal Behaviour, 1995
- Bioeconomics and the metaphysics of selectionJournal of Social and Biological Systems, 1987
- The Evolution of Reciprocal AltruismThe Quarterly Review of Biology, 1971