Women's lives viewed from an evolutionary perspective. II. patterns of helping

Abstract

Three hundred randomly selected, white, middle-class Los Angeles women were interviewed to determine variations in patterns of helping among kin versus nonkin. Specific predictions arising out of the evolutionary theories of kin selection and reciprocal altruism were supported: helping among friends was more likely to be reciprocal than helping among kin, closer kin were more likely sources of help than were more distant kin; among kin, helping was an increasing function of the recipient's expected reproductive potential; and the larger the amount of help given, the more likely it was to come from kin. The data suggest that the effects of variables such as kinship, age, wealth, sex, and expected reproductive potential are small but persistent, and hence potentially of great functional significance when present generation after generation. Subjects reported seeking help from individuals who had been sources of help in the past more often than from individuals who owed them help. Hints of deception or self-deception are present: Subjects reported giving more than they received and paying back more often than they were paid back.