Co-evolution of Cooperation, Mindreading, and Morality

该项目旨在研究人类合作的进化和文化历史基础。人类合作对于应对气候变化和人道主义紧急情况等人类面临的当代挑战至关重要。然而，当合作为造福他人而付出一些代价时，如何才能开展合作？该项目的主要论点是，在追求集体目标以实现更大利益的社会背景下，人类合作与人类阅读彼此思想以及监督和制裁彼此行为的能力共同发展。该项目计划通过计算机模拟测试这一论点的理论完整性，并通过实验室实验和跨文化研究测试其经验有效性。

The project aims to investigate the evolutionary and cultural–historical underpinnings of human cooperation. Human cooperation is critical to meet contemporary challenges to humanity such as climate change and humanitarian emergencies. Yet, when cooperation incurs some cost to benefit others, how can cooperation emerge? The project’s main contention is that human cooperation co-evolved with the human capacities to read each other’s minds and to monitor and sanction each other’s deeds in the social context of pursuing a collective goal for a greater good. The project plans to tests the theoretical integrity of this contention through computer simulations and its empirical validity through laboratory experiments and cross-cultural studies.