How groups of individuals achieve coordination and collective action is an important topic in
the natural sciences, but until recently the role of leadership in this process has been largely …

Although largely unaddressed by evolutionary theory for more than a century after Darwin,
over the last decade a wide range of adaptationist, byproduct, and memetic explanations …

Researchers from across the social sciences have found consistent deviations from the
predictions of the canonical model of self-interest in hundreds of experiments from around …

During the evolution of cooperation it may have become critical for individuals to compare
their own efforts and pay-offs with those of others. Negative reactions may occur when …

Recent experimental research has revealed forms of human behavior involving interaction
among unrelated individuals that have proven difficult to explain in terms of kin or reciprocal …

From an evolutionary standpoint, a default presumption is that true beliefs are adaptive and
misbeliefs maladaptive. But if humans are biologically engineered to appraise the world …

Monoamine oxidase A gene (MAOA) has earned the nickname “warrior gene” because it
has been linked to aggression in observational and survey-based studies. However, no …

This paper considers religion in relation to four recurrent traits: belief systems incorporating
supernatural agents and counterintuitive concepts, communal ritual, separation of the …

Cooperation towards public goods relies on credible threats of punishment to deter cheats.
However, punishing is costly, so it remains unclear who incurred the costs of enforcement in …

The evolution of human cooperation remains a puzzle because cooperation persists even in
conditions that rule out mainstream explanations. We present a novel solution that links two …