Abstract
Research in various disciplines has highlighted that humans are uniquely able to solve the problem of cooperation through the informal mechanisms of reputation and gossip. Reputation coordinates the evaluative judgments of individuals about one another. Direct observation of actions and communication are the essential routes that are used to establish and update reputations. In large groups, where opportunities for direct observation are limited, gossip becomes an important channel to share individual perceptions and evaluations of others that can be used to condition cooperative action. Although reputation and gossip might consequently support large-scale human cooperation, four puzzles need to be resolved to understand the operation of reputation-based mechanisms. First, we need empirical evidence of the processes and content that form reputations and how this may vary cross-culturally. Second, we lack an understanding of how reputation is determined from the muddle of imperfect, biased inputs people receive. Third, coordination between individuals is only possible if reputation sharing and signaling is to a large extent reliable and valid. Communication, however, is not necessarily honest and reliable, so theoretical and empirical work is needed to understand how gossip and reputation can effectively promote cooperation despite the circulation of dishonest gossip. Fourth, reputation is not constructed in a social vacuum; hence we need a better understanding of the way in which the structure of interactions affects the efficiency of gossip for establishing reputations and fostering cooperation.
Highlights
Cooperation—undertaking costly actions that benefit others—has been heralded as one of the most impressive human qualities
Models of indirect reciprocity and competitive altruism have greatly contributed to our understanding of the workings of reputations (Leimar & Hammerstein, 2001; Nowak & Sigmund, 1998b; Ohtsuki & Iwasa, 2004, 2006; Roberts, 2020), we argue that a new approach is needed to tackle several aspects of reputation that have yet to receive theoretical and empirical attention
How can cooperation be sustained in these contexts, and more broadly in human societies, despite the temptation of selfish actions? Reputation is an excellent candidate for supporting cooperation, first because it can signal cooperative attitudes and actions, second because the possession of a good reputation can lead to individual benefits, and third because it can spread through gossip
Summary
Human Nature cooperating under conditions where many other species fail—that is, with genetically unrelated individuals who share limited potential for future interactions (Gächter & Herrmann, 2009) This kind of cooperation is difficult to explain, but in recent decades work in several different disciplines has emphasized reputation as a solution (Barclay, 2012; Suzuki & Akiyama, 2005; Wu et al, 2016). For the sake of clarity, we present them as four distinct issues, but they are deeply entangled Before turning to these four puzzles about the substance of reputational judgements, the process of reputation formation, the reliability of gossip, and the structure of interactions, we first introduce indirect reciprocity and competitive altruism as foundational models describing the interplay among reputation, gossip, and cooperation. We conclude with some general remarks about the importance of addressing these issues
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