Toward Consilience on Indirect Reciprocity: Strategic Communication Theory and Findings from Social Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology

ABSTRACT

This article pursues interdisciplinary synthesis and consilience regarding the concept of indirect reciprocity and its relevance to strategic communication theory. Identified and named by evolutionary biologists, indirect reciprocity in its simplest form is a resource-acquisition process initiated when one entity benefits another entity without the prospect or expectation of direct return. This action enhances the reputation of the initial entity and leads to reciprocal beneficence from other entities that have observed or learned of the original action. Research in evolutionary biology and economics has shown that reputation-driven indirect reciprocity can lead to enduring resource-exchange relationships. Indirect reciprocity thus has implications for such basics of strategic communication as reputation management, resource acquisition, and corporate social responsibility. This study seeks to expand knowledge, within strategic communication, of the whys and hows of indirect reciprocity by examining and synthesizing relevant research from the disciplines of social psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Its contributions to consilience regarding indirect reciprocity include explanatory theories such as social exchange theory and costly signaling theory and such practical workings as second-order, third-order, and extended indirect reciprocity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).