Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-v2srd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-29T16:04:57.401Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identity fusion and fitness interdependence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Lee Cronk  and
Athena Aktipis Open the ORCID record for Athena Aktipis [Opens in a new window]
Lee Cronk
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. lcronk@anthropology.rutgers.edu  aktipis@asu.eduhttps://anthro.rutgers.edupeople/department-undergrad-a-grad-faculty/89-lee-cronkhttp://www.athenaaktipis.org
Athena Aktipis
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. lcronk@anthropology.rutgers.edu  aktipis@asu.eduhttps://anthro.rutgers.edupeople/department-undergrad-a-grad-faculty/89-lee-cronkhttp://www.athenaaktipis.org
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fitness interdependence is the degree to which two or more organisms influence each other's success in replicating their genes. Identity fusion may be a proximate mechanism that aligns behavior with fitness interdependence. Although identity fusion may usually lead to behaviors that are fitness enhancing, in evolutionarily novel environments, it may be hijacked in ways that are highly detrimental to fitness.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e199
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abou-Abdallah, M., Kashima, Y. & Harb, C. (2016) “Brothers” in arms: Does metaphorizing kinship increase approval of parochial altruism? Journal of Cognition and Culture 16(1–2):37–49.Google Scholar
Aktipis, A., Cronk, L., Alcock, J., Ayers, J. D., Baciu, C., Balliet, D., Boddy, A. M., Curry, O. S., Krems, J. A., Munoz, A., Sullivan, D., Sznycer, D., Wilkinson, G. S. & Winfrey, P. (2018) Fitness interdependence: A unifying concept for the study of human social behaviour and cooperation. Nature Human Behaviour 2:429–31.Google Scholar
Aktipis, A., de Aguiar, R., Flaherty, A., Iyer, P., Sonkoi, D. & Cronk, L. (2016) Cooperation in an uncertain world: For the Maasai of East Africa, need-based transfers outperform account keeping in volatile environments. Human Ecology 44:353–64.Google Scholar
Aktipis, C. A., Boddy, A. M., Jansen, G., Hibner, U., Hochberg, M. E., Maley, C. C. & Wilkinson, G. S. (2015) Cancer across the tree of life: Cooperation and cheating in multicellularity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 370(1673):20140219.Google Scholar
Ambrose, S. E. (1992) Band of brothers: E company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's nest. Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Brown, S. L. (1999) Evolutionary origins of investment: Testing a theory of close relationships. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University.Google Scholar
Brown, S. L. & Brown, R. M. (2006) Selective investment theory: Recasting the functional significance of close relationships. Psychological Inquiry 17:1–29.Google Scholar
Chwe, M. S.-Y. (2003) Rational ritual: Culture, coordination, and common knowledge. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cronk, L., Berbesque, C., Conte, T., Gervais, M., Iyer, P., McCarthy, B., Sonkoi, D., Townsend, C. & Aktipis, A. (2018) Managing risk through cooperation: Need-based transfers and risk pooling among the societies of the Human Generosity Project. In: Global perspectives on long-term community resource management, ed. Lozny, L. R. & McGovern, T. H.. Springer.Google Scholar
Cronk, L. & Leech, B. L. (2013) Meeting at Grand Central: Understanding the social and evolutionary roots of cooperation. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dow, J. (1984) The genetic basis for affinal cooperation. American Ethnologist 11:380–83.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. (1964a) The genetical evolution of social behavior, I. Journal of Theoretical Biology 7(1):1–16.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W. D. (1964b) The genetical evolution of social behavior, II. Journal of Theoretical Biology 7(1):17–52.Google Scholar
Hughes, A. L. (1988) Evolution and human kinship. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelley, H. H. & Thibaut, J. W. (1978) Interpersonal relations: A theory of interdependence. Wiley.Google Scholar
Qirko, H. N. (2004) Altruistic celibacy, kin-cue manipulation, and the development of religious institutions. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 39:681–706.Google Scholar
Qirko, H. N. (2009) Altruism in suicide terror organizations. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 44:289–322.Google Scholar
Roberts, G. (2005) Cooperation through interdependence. Animal Behaviour 70(4):901–908.Google Scholar
Salmon, C. (1988) The evocative nature of kin terminology in political rhetoric. Politics and the Life Sciences 17:51–57.Google Scholar
Strassmann, J. E., Zhu, Y. & Queller, D. C. (2000) Altruism and social cheating in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Nature 408(6815):965.Google Scholar