“蛊”是至今仍广泛存在于四川、云南、贵州、湖南等地区少数民族中的一种巫术信仰。蛊信仰在各个文化中的表现形式略有不同，但多与饲养毒虫并在食物或酒中下毒害人有关。蛊名声常被放置在女性身上，并传递给下一代。被认为有蛊的家庭往往在社会交往中受到排斥。人类的合作行为是最重要的科学问题之一。蛊信仰对种群合作结构与社会网络的形成有重要影响，但这种特殊名声本身的起源与维持机制并不清楚。此外，蛊信仰在不同社会制度下对合作行为的影响也有待进一步研究。针对真实的人类社会，特别是小种群社会开展合作行为研究，不仅具有理论意义，对认识人类自身特有的问题也具有重要的现实意义。本项目将应用进化生物学理论，采用实验博弈方法和进化博弈理论分析开展跨文化比较研究，以揭示蛊信仰对大尺度合作行为演化的影响;并将采用系统比较法、人口统计信息分析和进化博弈模型等定量研究方法，深入研究蛊信仰的形成与维持机制。

“Gu” is a type of witchcraft beliefs related with food poisoning. It has been documented from many ethnic minorities in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhi, Hunan etc. Although the concepts of “Gu” between different ethnic minorities are various, there are some similarities. Women are normally accused as “witches”, and the accusation will be passed to next generation. The households labelled as “Gu” will be excluded from social contacts. Human cooperation is one of the most important scientific questions in science. The reputation of “Gu” plays an important role in shaping the cooperative structure and social network. However, the origin and maintain mechanisms of “Gu” are still unanswered, and to what extent the “Gu” will influence the cooperative behaviors in different social systems are not clear. Studying how people cooperate in real society is of great theoretical and realistic significance. The present study aims to uncover how “Gu” beliefs will promote large-scaled human cooperation cross-culturally, by combining economic games and evolutionary game theory analysis. We will also perform demographic analysis, phylogenetic comparative studies and evolutionary game modelling to explore the origin and maintenance of “Gu”.