Abstract
Groupishness is a set of tendencies to respond to group members with prosociality and cooperation in ways that transcend apparent self-interest. Its evolution is puzzling because it gives the impression of breaking the ordinary rules of natural selection. Boehm's solution is that moral elements of groupishness originated and evolved as a result of group members becoming efficient executioners of antisocial individuals, and he noted that self-domestication would have proceeded from the same dynamic. Self-domestication is indicated first at ~300,000 years ago and has probably gathered pace ever since, suggesting selection for self-domestication and groupishness for at least 12,000 generations. Here I propose that a specifically human style of violence, targeted conspiratorial killing, contributed importantly to both self-domestication and to promoting groupishness. Targeted conspiratorial killing is unknown in chimpanzees or any other vertebrate, and is significant because it permits coalitions to kill antisocial individuals cheaply. The hypothesis that major elements of groupishness are due to targeted conspiratorial killing helps explain why they are much more elaborated in humans than in other species.
Highlights
Social media summary: Planned killing of antisocial individuals occurs only in humans, and helps to explain why we have prosocial tendencies
Evidence that the most recent evolutionary phase of human self-domestication started with H. sapiens, whereas earlier Pleistocene Homo species showed no signs of a self-domestication syndrome, suggests that the period shortly before 300,000 years ago marked the beginnings of intensified selection against reactive aggression
Chimpanzee within-group gang attacks differ from human executions, by showing little or no sign of being planned, and no consistent ability to kill the alpha male
Summary
Social media summary: Planned killing of antisocial individuals occurs only in humans, and helps to explain why we have prosocial tendencies. Evidence that the most recent evolutionary phase of human self-domestication started with H. sapiens, whereas earlier Pleistocene Homo species showed no signs of a self-domestication syndrome, suggests that the period shortly before 300,000 years ago marked the beginnings of intensified selection against reactive aggression. Those claims might be taken to suggest that there is no important difference between the propensities of chimpanzees and humans to kill an alpha male.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call