Mod 4 Quiz Flashcards
altruism
when behavior benefits other organisms, at a cost to itself (the organism)
cooperate
the process where groups of organisms work or act together for common or mutual benefits
defect
not cooperating (in a group setting)
mutualism
a relationship in which both species are benefited
game theory
players attempting to maximize payoffs by interactive decision making ; tool for predicting the best strategy
payoff matrix
a table that contains the options that are available to players of a game
prisoner’s dilemma
two strategies that can cause a certain amount in jail (punishment) and which will one choose:
1. snitch
2. silent
reciprocal altruism
individuals balance reciprocal acts ; “i’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”
dictator game
questions the assumption that individuals will act solely out of self-interest
ultimatum game
two players, a proposer and a responder, bargain over a fixed amount of money ; punishment is important for maintaining cooperation
inequity aversion
dislike distributions that are not balanced
what is the definition of cooperation, and why is it puzzling?
a) when an individual acts in a manner that benefits others
b) why cooperate when you could ‘cheat’ and reap the benefits from others’ cooperation without suffering any costs?
how is human cooperation special (in terms of frequency, contexts, strangers, etc)?
humans will cooperate with individuals that they will, likely, never see again
how does kin selection help explain cooperation among relatives?
1) related individuals often cluster
2) altruism can evolve through kin selection
what are some examples of non-kin cooperation in non-human primates?
1) remora hitching a ride from a sea turtle
2) monkeys grooming each other
3) sea things cleaning sharks back for food
what is mutualism, and when will it evolve?
1) benefit of all parties
2) evolves when there is no benefit to slacking off
what is game theory, and why is useful?
1) players attempting to maximize payoffs by interactive decision making
2) tool for predicting the best strategy
what does the payoff matrix for a mutualism look like?
cooperating always yields a higher immediate payoff than defecting (not cooperating)
what is the best strategy for
player a when b cooperates? when b defects?
payoff (benefit) to individual a ; regardless of b’s strategy, the best strategy for a is to cooperate
in prisoner’s dilemma - what strategy yields the biggest payoff for a if b cooperates? If b defects? what does this mean for the evolution of cooperation?
1) if both are silent then they both only get 6 months
2) a will get 10 years in jail
3) the prisoner’s dilemma exists in nature and it persists
are there cases in the wild where animals appear to face the equivalent of a prisoner’s dilemma?
yes, an example would be vervet monkey’s and vampire bats
what is reciprocal altruism, and how does it help explain cooperation, even if animals face a prisoner’s dilemma?
1) “i’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”
2) individuals balance reciprocal acts; such as grooming, food sharing, etc.
is reciprocal altruism widespread in humans?
yes
how do we explain random acts of kindness in humans? helping strangers (sometimes risking one’s life)?
cooperating helps to improve relationships
what do the results of cross-cultural dictator and ultimatum games tell us about human tendencies regarding fairness?
they are not as clear cut as de waal made it seem
are humans inequity averse?
yes
is punishment important for
maintaining human cooperation?
yes
do non-human primates care about fairness?
chimpanzees are not averse to inequity and do not punish
what is lethal coalitionary aggression, and is it rare or common in the animal kingdom?
1) power groups of coresident males bonded by kinship
2) very rare
how would you characterize chimpanzee territoriality?
lethal coalitionary - very violent and protective of their area
what sorts of behaviors do chimps exhibit territorially?
border patrol, specific calls, and violent
how many individuals (chimps) participate in guarding the territory?
shifts as they walk around the territory
under what circumstances do chimps attack for their territory?
if an animal(s) has invaded it and it does not belong to their group
when attacks occur, are they usually many vs. one? or when groups are evenly matched?
1) if the patrol outweighs the trespassers then they fight
2) not as often when they are evenly matched
are attackers usually injured (in chimps)?
yes! chimps are very violent to them
why do chimpanzees attack their neighbors?
the distribution of food causes chimpanzees to have a fission-fusion social system –> in order to secure more resources or mates
what are the main predictions of the imbalance of power hypothesis?
1) power asymmetry between opponents provokes attack
2) power symmetry suppresses attack
what are the results of the wilson et al. studies?
?????
how is human warfare evolutionarily novel in terms of: scale, relatedness of participants and reproductive status of participants
large scale, unrelated, and reproductive
what is the turkana people’s subsistence strategy?
subsistence pastoralists—little production for market
do the turkana people have leaders? government?
no
what are the turkana people’s settlements like?
live in small nomadic settlements
what kinds of raids do the turkana perform against neighboring tribes?
offense: stealth & force raids
defense: patrols, reinforcement, homestead defense
what are the characteristics of these raids?
informal mobilization ; no formal command structure ; no joint training
are raid participants typically related? do they
always know each other?
???
what is the probability of dying on a force raid?
1.1%
what are the benefits of raiding?
marry earlier/have more people to reproduce with
what does professor mathew’s research reveal about why turkana men participate in raids?
punishment is key in humans??
cultural evolution
1) by 10,000 years ago, humans occupied every terrestrial habitat except antarctica
2) humans are very good at learning and causal reasoning tasks (but not that good)
3) people who left africa were tropical foragers
4) artic circle problem!
imitation
a) an increase of the ability of a population to adapt only if imitation increases the fitness of learners
b) 1) selective hearing ; 2) accumulation of small improvements
conclusion of imitation and cumulative culture
1) hard problems = ignore reason (don’t need to understand why) and copy others
2) easy problems = figure out yourself
3) people have to believe others
maladaptive ideas
prestige bias, which is the tendency to imitate successful people ; but, sometimes it’s hard to know what constitutes “success”
historical perspective on race
linneaus
- classified 4 human subspecies, corresponding to american, european, asian & african.
- based on skin and hair color
anthropological interest in race
1) craniometry
2) social darwinism
3) criminal anthropology
4) eugenics
craniometry
measurement of the skull - claim that skull size correlated with intelligence and phrenology
phrenology
shape & contours of skull reveal talents and abilities
social darwinism
physical traits used to ‘justify’ discrimination
criminal anthropology (lombroso)
idea that criminals are born that way; 1) Atavism, 2) Criminals are apes, “throwbacks” (more than 5 traits leads to genetic predisposition)
atavism
evolutionary ‘primitive’ traits occasionally reappear
eugenics
society’s problems can be solved by controlling gene pool, remove “undesirables” ; people were sterilized
problems with eugenics
1) reification – labels are not meaningful
2) arbitrariness – who decides who is fit?
3) hereditarianism – assumes all behaviors are genetic
4) superiority (i.e., “fitness”) is time dependent
ancient dna (aDNA)
1) DNA can be preserved for hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of years (under the right conditions)
2) aDNA can give us lots of information about many different things, including dispersal, evolutionary relationships, etc
teeth is a good place to find aDNA
how is aDNA a challenge to work with?
1) it degrades easily, either from the bacteria that decomposed the corpse, or from heat and humidity
2) scientists have to be very careful not to contaminate samples with their own DNA – can change the results
3) often have to destroy a specimen to extract aDNA
how is the DNA between the neandertals and homo sapiens compared
1) genomes of modern humans (of non-african origin) contain 1% - 4% neandertal DNA
2) interbreeding!
fate of neandertals
1) likely to be a combination
2) there was certainly some genetic assimilation b/c there are neandertal genes in our genomes
how is human behavior shaped?
a mix of genes and environment - some is innate and some is learned
evolutionary psychology
the goal of this field is to understand how humans think - the brain developed in a different type of environment and that relates to how many problems of society
wason selection task
illustrates that humans are better at logic when it involves a
social contract, particularly detecting cheaters
inbreeding avoidance behavior
1) close relatives are likely to carry alleles for the same diseases
2) increases the likelihood of combining two heterozygous individuals for the same disease, making inbreeding a behavior that would decrease one’s fitness
3) natural selection should therefore favor behavioral adaptations that reduce the tendency for humans to want to engage in inbreeding
how to avoid inbreeding?
1) leave natal group at sexual maturity (chimps)
2) sexual consorts between between siblings are less cohesive than unrelated individuals
how do animals recognize kin?
1) contextual cues (association)
2) phenotypic matching (smell, physical likeness to self)
the westermarch effect
adults are not attracted to individuals they grew up with (supportive evidence: “minor marriages” in china and kibbutizm in israel)
female mating preferences
1) resources are the limiting factor
2) should therefore prefer males that can provide for her (and her offspring)
male mating preferences
1) female fertility is the limiting factor
2) prefer females that are healthy and fertile
what is race as a biological concept?
geographically circumscribed, genetically differentiated population
if humans can be biologically divided into races, what would be expected?
1) to see biological variation across geographic regions
2) to see biologically distinct populations, (which means: easily identifiable groups with minimal gene flow between them and the biological differences between groups are not solely adaptive)
can we identify distinct groups of humans?
there is geographic variation but even if we could decide on the number of races there is no one place that they would all live in AND there are too many traits to consider
myth of the primitive isolate
the idea that at some point early in our species history there were isolated, pristine populations of “pure” races that did not interbreed, and that races today descended from these ancient races (doesn’t match behavior of early homo)
genetic data
there is more genetic variation within “traditional” races or populations than between them (traditional race divisions explain only 6-10% of all genetic variation found within humans)
convergent evolution
create people with similar traits in different parts of the world that have similar climate (head shape, nose shape, skin color, body build)
allen’s rule
animals in cold climates tend to have large, stout bodies, while those in hot climates have long, thin bodies
can allen’s rule have the same meaning between humans?
yes ; artic = shorter, stout while tropical/equatorial = tall, lean
what are the two main sources of biological variation among humans?
1) acclimation
2) adaption
acclimation
short term changes that reflect responses to specific environmental conditions ; manifested within an individual person
adaption
manifested at the population level ; results from changes in allele frequencies
examples of adaption include what?
high altitude adaption ; skin color adaption
what is the correct answer to the variation of biological race?
the result of adaptation to the environment rather than long-term isolation
bioarcheology
analysis of human skeletal remains recovered from archaeological sites (primary goal: understand lifestyles of past peoples)
where do they study bioarcheology?
mass burials/cemeteries
epidemiology
study of the determinants, dynamics and distribution of disease
what are the major determinants of mortality
1) infectious
2) chronic/degenerative
3) accidental/occupational
3) inter-personal violence
epidemiological transition theory:
general shift from acute infectious diseases characteristic of underdevelopment to chronic non-contagious diseases characteristic of modernization and advanced levels of development
paleopathology
study of disease in the past using evidence of disease in bones and teeth
what’s a major caveat to paleopathology?
1) limited to only those diseases that involve the skeleton
2) one can have a disease but still have a healthy skeleton
generalized metabolic stress
most infectious diseases, does not directly affect the skeleton (measuring stress is often more informative than considering specific diseases)
forensic anthropology
deals with skeletonized or decomposed remains for the purpose of aiding in a legal investigation
what are the elements to a forensic investigation?
1) determine if remains are of medical or legal significance
2) participate in archaeological recovery
3) identify the victim (establish a biological profile)
4) reconstruct cause of death and interpret crime scene (gunshot wound, homicide, etc.)
peri-mortem vs post-mortem
peri = before and post = after
