A few misunderstandings about reciprocal altruism

Abstract

Current discussion about reciprocal altruism is plagued by a few points of continuing disagreement/misunderstanding. In order to facilitate progress in understanding the role of reciprocity in animal societies, in this paper we try to highlight these points of disagreement/misunderstanding. Our contribution can be summarized by the following statements: 1) A temporal contingency between action and reciprocation is not the sole valid evidence for reciprocal altruism; 2) Reciprocity is not (always) cognitively demanding; 3) Kin biases in altruism are not necessarily and entirely due to kin selection; 4) Mutualism can also involve reciprocal partner choice; 5) Biological market theory is an extension of reciprocal altruism theory.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Frantisek Baluska for inviting us to write this paper.

Figures and Tables

Figure 1 Weighed average effect size of the effect of kinship on grooming, based on a meta-analysis of grooming distribution in 25 primate groups. The figure compares the effect of kinship on grooming when reciprocity is or is not controlled for. Data are from reference 3.

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