Competitive altruism
Competitive altruism
- Competitive altruism** is a possible mechanism for the persistence of cooperative behaviours, specifically those that are performed unconditionally. The theory of reciprocal altruism can be used to explain behaviours that are performed by a donor who receives some sort of benefit in the future. When no such compensation is received, however, reciprocity fails to explain altruistic behaviour. Both reciprocal altruism and competitive altruism anticipate that the more altruistic one is, the more they will receive. Competitive altruism explains unreciprocated altruistic behaviour as individuals striving to outcompete others in terms of their generosity so as to gain the unique benefits obtained from an enhanced status and reputation.
Origins of competitive altruism in humans Compared to other primates, humans show a much higher degree of altruism and cooperation towards unrelated individuals. This behaviour is unusual as it goes against one's best interests of benefiting oneself and their relatives in the interest of better survival. A study using sharing games to investigate the ontogenic origins of competitive altruism found evidence that a significant developmental change occurs in children from 5 to 8 years old. The 8 year old participants were more generous in the sharing game, especially when they were observed and their behaviour could affect their chances of being partnered with. The differences in behaviour between the 5 and 8 year olds suggest there is a component of their development at this stage that allows them to learn the mechanism of competitive altruism.
Evolutionary psychologists believe that altruistic behaviour provides adaptive advantages to humans. For example, through self-sacrificial competitive altruism, individuals perform conspicuous self-sacrificial prosocial acts to promote their desirable qualities. This allows them to be viewed favourably by others, which may reap benefits such as a desirable job or better choice of mate. A study found that sex played an important role in triggering this behaviour. Participants were placed into mixed-sex trios to complete a series of tasks, which involved self-sacrificial actions that were viewed as costly, difficult, and crucial towards the group's success. Participants who engaged in self-sacrificial behaviour were favourably viewed, and were rewarded later on by other participants with more money and being preferred as a task partner. The males scored higher than females for the self-rated personality trait of glory seeking, whilst females scored higher for social inhibition. Additionally, the more glory seeking males tended to engage in the self-sacrificial behaviour. Furthermore, the presence of other males seemed to trigger competitive altruistic behaviour, with males oftentimes pushing females out of the self-sacrificial roles, despite the willingness of several female participants. Moreover, males in the self sacrificial roles perceived their role as being of higher status than females in the same role did.
Characteristics To explain competitive altruism, Roberts uses the example of preening among birds. Because certain birds cannot reach parasites on all parts of their bodies, particularly their necks, they benefit from preening one another. For any given bird, there is an entire flock of potential preeners, who compete in hopes of establishing a beneficial relationship. Cheaters, or those birds that try to be preened without preening others, do not compete and thus are excluded from these relationships. Their fitness is lowered because they are ostracized by members of the flock.
McNamara et al. quantitatively analyzed this theory. Like Robert Axelrod, they created a computer program to simulate repeated interactions among individuals. The program involved players with two genetically determined traits, a "cooperative trait" and a "choosiness trait". They found the following results:<blockquote> 'Paradoxical' trait combinations yield particularly low payoffs: individuals with low choosiness but high effort tend to get exploited by their co-players; individuals with high choosiness but low effort waste their time searching for better co-players, which are, however, unlikely to accept them. The positive correlation between choosiness and cooperativeness leads to a positive assortment between cooperative types – an essential feature of all mechanisms that promote cooperation.
Competitive altruism has been demonstrated repeatedly in studies with humans. For instance, individuals are more generous when their behaviour is visible to others and altruistic individuals receive more social status and are selectively preferred as collaboration partners and group leaders. Adding insights from sexual selection theory research has also found that men behave more altruistically in the presence of an (attractive) female, and altruistic males are selectively preferred as long-term sexual partners.
The handicap principle The theory of competitive altruism also helps one connect such behaviour to the handicap principle. With competitive altruism, cooperation is considered a trait that provides a signaling benefit, and thus is subject to sexual selection. Like a peacock's tail, cooperation persists and is magnified, even though it carries a cost to the individual. Cooperation must be significantly costly to the individual, such that only a limited proportion of the population is fit enough to partake.
Roberts raises the point that an altruistic signalling behaviour like gift-giving would cause a "flow of fitness from the higher quality individual to the lower quality one" and reduce the veracity of the signal. To account for this likely trend, Wright stipulates that the altruistic behavior must be directed at a mate or ally. For the theory to hold, the signaling benefit would have to be shown to improve the individual's fitness beyond the benefit gained from the "investment" in the partner.