Evolutionary Game Theory and Personality

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss the links between evolutionary game theory and personality research. Evolutionary game theory is a set of research methods used to investigate the evolution of social behavior, whereas personality research is mainly focused on comprehensively describing individual differences and their correlates. Until recently, these research domains developed independently, and scholars from one domain only scarcely referred to insights obtained in the other domain. This is changing, however, due to two developments. First, models of evolutionary game theory reveal that personality differences may have an adaptive explanation. These models generate new insights into the origins of personality, and some of these models produce novel and testable hypotheses. Second, it is becoming clear that individual differences matter for the course and outcome of evolution. Accordingly, insights from evolutionary game theory (and experiments based on these insights) can be misleading if personality differences are neglected. Here, we review these recent developments, emphasizing both the evolutionary causes and the evolutionary consequences of personality differences. Overall, we argue that the behavioral sciences would profit from a closer integration of mechanistic and functional perspectives.