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Exploring the Evolved Concept of Newcomer: Experimental Tests of a Cognitive Model

Exploring the Evolved Concept of Newcomer: Experimental Tests of a Cognitive Model Enduring human coalitions face the adaptive problem of integrating new members. Although newcomers can provide benefits (e.g., additional labor), newcomers can also create costs (e.g., by free riding). Due to the unique adaptive problems they pose, we hypothesize that the mind contains an evolved concept of newcomer. We test the design of this concept experimentally and show that the activation of the newcomer concept elicits a variety of anti-free rider responses (e.g., a decrease in trust) with adaptively-targeted exceptions (e.g., a minimal increase in exclusion sentiment). These results support the hypothesis that the mind contains specialized concepts for understanding, creating, and sustaining intergenerational coalitions. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Evolutionary Psychology SAGE

Exploring the Evolved Concept of Newcomer: Experimental Tests of a Cognitive Model

Evolutionary Psychology , Volume 8 (2): 19 – Apr 1, 2010
19 pages

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References (107)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2010 SAGE Publications Inc.
ISSN
1474-7049
eISSN
1474-7049
DOI
10.1177/147470491000800214
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Enduring human coalitions face the adaptive problem of integrating new members. Although newcomers can provide benefits (e.g., additional labor), newcomers can also create costs (e.g., by free riding). Due to the unique adaptive problems they pose, we hypothesize that the mind contains an evolved concept of newcomer. We test the design of this concept experimentally and show that the activation of the newcomer concept elicits a variety of anti-free rider responses (e.g., a decrease in trust) with adaptively-targeted exceptions (e.g., a minimal increase in exclusion sentiment). These results support the hypothesis that the mind contains specialized concepts for understanding, creating, and sustaining intergenerational coalitions.

Journal

Evolutionary PsychologySAGE

Published: Apr 1, 2010

Keywords: newcomers; coalitions; free riding; concepts; evolutionary psychology

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