The Roots of Human Sociality: An Ethno-Experimental Exploration of the Foundations of Economic Norms in 16 Small-Scale Societies

在所有人类社会中，广泛的社会现象都是由自律机构或一套规范来管理的，这些规范规定了适当的行为和对不当行为的适当制裁。从婚姻模式和性别不平等到政治进程和市场交换，这些规范影响着人类活动的广泛领域。尽管有相当多的人同意这类机构的存在，但现有的理论难以解释亲社会规范(例如，公平标准或惩罚违反规范者的规则)的起源和维持，这些规范构成了社会互动的基石。社会科学领域的实验和实地数据都表明，无论是狭隘的经济自利假设，还是基于亲属关系或互惠的进化模型，都不足以解释观察到的人类亲社会性模式。为了探索人类社会规范和偏好的多样性，1998年，麦克阿瑟基金会邀请了12位经验丰富的实地人类学家，率先在小规模社会中使用实验经济方法。在这项第二阶段的研究中，研究人员将通过实验测量16个小规模社会中个人对利他主义(或公平)、直接惩罚(惩罚违反规范的人的意愿)和第三方惩罚(第三方观察员愿意为惩罚不公平付出代价的意愿)的偏好/品味，来探索社会规范的基础。这些田野地点包括世界上大多数大陆的觅食者、砍伐和焚烧园艺师、游牧牧民、小规模农场主和城市受雇劳工。在这些背景下进行实验的好处之一是，在美国大学实验室通常可以找到的基础上，拓宽了受试者的社会范围。这项新研究的总体目标是复制早期的工作(包括利他行为随着市场一体化水平的提高而增加的发现)，通过纳入9个新站点和新实验来扩大研究范围，收紧跨站点的数据收集方法，并通过新的可检验预测来扩展研究。三款游戏(独裁者、策略最后通牒和第三方惩罚游戏)的核心套餐将在所有16个现场使用。此外，该小组的小组将进行四项补充研究，以检查：1)社会网络和信任之间的关系，2)通过操纵游戏在当地文化中的呈现而产生的框定效应，3)实验者在双盲游戏中对受试者决策的了解的影响，以及4)游戏行为的时间和个体内的可复制性，即，如果相同的游戏被相同的受试者重复，偏好是否会改变？一大群不同的研究人员的优势之一是带来了各种各样的理论传统和兴趣。该小组包括在进化论、心理人类学、理性选择、新制度经济学、发展和网络分析等领域进行了重大理论和实证工作的学者。以往的经验表明，这种理论多样性通过范式冲突带来的挑战激发了新的想法、创新的实证工作和理论发展。这个项目应该有助于探索社会学习、制度、文化进化和文化-基因共同进化对人类行为的重要性的理论工作。

0136761Ensminger & HenrichIn all human societies, a wide range of social phenomena are governed by self-regulating institutions, or sets of norms that prescribe appropriate behaviors and proper sanctions for inappropriate behavior. Such norms influence an enormous range of human activity, from marriage patterns and sexual inequality to political processes and market exchange. Despite a fair amount of agreement that such institutions exist, extant theories struggle to explain the genesis and maintenance of pro-social norms (e.g., standards of fairness, or rules for punishing norm violators) that form the bedrock of social interaction. Both experimental and field data from across the social sciences indicate that neither assumptions of narrow economic self-interest nor evolutionary models based on kinship or reciprocity are sufficient to account for the observed patterns of human pro-sociality. To probe the diversity of social norms and preferences across the human spectrum, in 1998 the MacArthur Foundation invited twelve experienced field anthropologists to pioneer the use of experimental economic methods in small-scale societies. In this second phase of research, the researchers will explore the foundations of social norms by experimentally measuring individuals' preferences/tastes for altruism (or fairness), direct punishment (willingness to punish norm violators), and third party punishment (willingness of third-party observers to pay a price to punish unfairness) across 16 small-scale societies. These field sites include foragers, slash and burn horticulturalists, pastoral-nomads, small-scale agriculturalists, and urban wage laborers on most continents of the world. One of the advantages of running experiments in these contexts is that the social spectrum of subjects is broadened from those typically found in U.S. university laboratories. The overall objectives of this new research are to replicate the earlier work (including the finding that altruistic behavior increases with the level of market integration), to broaden the research by including nine new sites and new experiments, to tighten the data collection methods across sites, and to extend the research with new testable predictions. A core package of three games (the Dictator, Ultimatum with Strategy Method, and Third-Party Punishment Games) will be used at all 16 field sites. In addition, subsets of the group will pursue four supplemental studies to examine: 1) the relationship between social networks and trust, 2) framing effects created by manipulating the presentation of the games in the local culture, 3) the effect of the experimenter's knowledge of subjects' decisions in double-blind games, and 4) the temporal, intra-individual replicability of game behavior, i.e. if the same game is repeated with the same subjects, do preferences change? One of the advantages of a large and diverse group of researchers is the variety of theoretical traditions and interests brought to the table. The group contains scholars who have done their major theoretical and empirical work in the fields of evolutionary theory, psychological anthropology, rational choice, new institutional economics, development, and network analysis. Previous experience has shown that this theoretical diversity inspires novel ideas, innovative empirical work, and theoretical development through the challenges that arise from the clash of paradigms. This project should contribute to theoretical work that explores the importance of social learning, institutions, cultural evolution, and culture-gene co-evolution on human behavior.