The nature of human altruism

Some of the most fundamental questions concerning our evolutionary origins, our social relations, and the organization of society are centred around issues of altruism and selfishness. Experimental evidence indicates that human altruism is a powerful force and is unique in the animal world. However, there is much individual heterogeneity and the interaction between altruists and selfish individuals is vital to human cooperation. Depending on the environment, a minority of altruists can force a majority of selfish individuals to cooperate or, conversely, a few egoists can induce a large number of altruists to defect. Current gene-based evolutionary theories cannot explain important patterns of human altruism, pointing towards the importance of both theories of cultural evolution as well as gene-culture co-evolution.     

Parochial altruism in humans

Social norms and the associated altruistic behaviours are decisive for the evolution of human cooperation and the maintenance of social order, and they affect family life, politics and economic interactions. However, as altruistic norm compliance and norm enforcement often emerge in the context of inter-group conflicts, they are likely to be shaped by parochialism--a preference for favouring the members of one's ethnic, racial or language group. We have conducted punishment experiments, which allow 'impartial' observers to punish norm violators, with indigenous groups in Papua New Guinea. Here we show that these experiments confirm the prediction of parochialism. We found that punishers protect ingroup victims--who suffer from a norm violation--much more than they do outgroup victims, regardless of the norm violator's group affiliation. Norm violators also expect that punishers will be lenient if the latter belong to their social group. As a consequence, norm violations occur more often if the punisher and the norm violator belong to the same group. Our results are puzzling for evolutionary multi-level selection theories based on selective group extinction as well as for theories of individual selection; they also indicate the need to explicitly examine the interactions between individuals stemming from different groups in evolutionary models.     

Altruistic punishment in humans.

Human cooperation is an evolutionary puzzle. Unlike other creatures, people frequently cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers, often in large groups, with people they will never meet again, and when reputation gains are small or absent. These patterns of cooperation cannot be explained by the nepotistic motives associated with the evolutionary theory of kin selection and the selfish motives associated with signalling theory or the theory of reciprocal altruism. Here we show experimentally that the altruistic punishment of defectors is a key motive for the explanation of cooperation. Altruistic punishment means that individuals punish, although the punishment is costly for them and yields no material gain. We show that cooperation flourishes if altruistic punishment is possible, and breaks down if it is ruled out. The evidence indicates that negative emotions towards defectors are the proximate mechanism behind altruistic punishment. These results suggest that future study of the evolution of human cooperation should include a strong focus on explaining altruistic punishment.     

Exceptional sperm cooperation in the wood mouse

Spermatozoa from a single male will compete for fertilization of ova with spermatozoa from another male when present in the female reproductive tract at the same time. Close genetic relatedness predisposes individuals towards altruism, and as haploid germ cells of an ejaculate will have genotypic similarity of 50%, it is predicted that spermatozoa may display cooperation and altruism to gain an advantage when inter-male sperm competition is intense. We report here the probable altruistic behaviour of spermatozoa in an eutherian mammal. Spermatozoa of the common wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, displayed a unique morphological transformation resulting in cooperation in distinctive aggregations or 'trains' of hundreds or thousands of cells, which significantly increased sperm progressive motility. Eventual dispersal of sperm trains was associated with most of the spermatozoa undergoing a premature acrosome reaction. Cells undergoing an acrosome reaction in aggregations remote from the egg are altruistic in that they help sperm transport to the egg but compromise their own fertilizing ability.     

The coevolution of choosiness and cooperation

Explaining the rise and maintenance of cooperation is central to our understanding of biological systems and human societies. When an individual's cooperativeness is used by other individuals as a choice criterion, there can be competition to be more generous than others, a situation called competitive altruism. The evolution of cooperation between non-relatives can then be driven by a positive feedback between increasing levels of cooperativeness and choosiness. Here we use evolutionary simulations to show that, in a situation where individuals have the opportunity to engage in repeated pairwise interactions, the equilibrium degree of cooperativeness depends critically on the amount of behavioural variation that is being maintained in the population by processes such as mutation. Because our model does not invoke complex mechanisms such as negotiation behaviour, it can be applied to a wide range of species. The results suggest an important role of lifespan in the evolution of cooperation.     

试析经济执法与经济司法的契合

经济执法与经济司法是经济法实施中不可分割的两个部分,尽管两者有很多区别,但两者联系更为紧密。根据现有的法律规定,很多违法的经济执法行为得不到追究,有经济执法而无相应的经济司法的情况普遍存在。为了更好地维护经济执法与经济司法的关系,应当建立经济公益诉讼制度,以最大限度地监督经济执法,从而发挥经济司法的作用。     

Egalitarianism in young children

Human social interaction is strongly shaped by other-regarding preferences, that is, a concern for the welfare of others. These preferences are important for a unique aspect of human sociality-large scale cooperation with genetic strangers-but little is known about their developmental roots. Here we show that young children's other-regarding preferences assume a particular form, inequality aversion that develops strongly between the ages of 3 and 8. At age 3-4, the overwhelming majority of children behave selfishly, whereas most children at age 7-8 prefer resource allocations that remove advantageous or disadvantageous inequality. Moreover, inequality aversion is strongly shaped by parochialism, a preference for favouring the members of one's own social group. These results indicate that human egalitarianism and parochialism have deep developmental roots, and the simultaneous emergence of altruistic sharing and parochialism during childhood is intriguing in view of recent evolutionary theories which predict that the same evolutionary process jointly drives both human altruism and parochialism.     

试析经济执法与经济司法的契合

经济执法与经济司法是经济法实施中不可分割的两个部分,尽管两者有很多区别,但两者联系更为紧密。根据现有的法律规定,很多违法的经济执法行为得不到追究,有经济执法而无相应的经济司法的情况普遍存在。为了更好地维护经济执法与经济司法的关系,应当建立经济公益诉讼制度,以最大限度地监督经济执法,从而发挥经济司法的作用。     

知识溢出与创业关系的实证研究

当代创业理论,尤其是对创业机会的挖掘和利用方面的研究,已经引起了国内外学者的广泛关注.在国内创业理论中普遍把创业机会当成外生变量,但目前国际上流行的经济增长理论却认为它们是内生变量.知识的创造和溢出会增加创业机会,进而促进创业活动的发生.创业活动不仅仅涉及机会的利用,还涉及到对未能被现有公司利用的知识溢出的利用.运用中国17个省的统计数据,分析了知识溢出与创业活动的关系,发现它们之间有着很强的关联性.     

Empathic neural responses are modulated by the perceived fairness of others

The neural processes underlying empathy are a subject of intense interest within the social neurosciences. However, very little is known about how brain empathic responses are modulated by the affective link between individuals. We show here that empathic responses are modulated by learned preferences, a result consistent with economic models of social preferences. We engaged male and female volunteers in an economic game, in which two confederates played fairly or unfairly, and then measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging while these same volunteers observed the confederates receiving pain. Both sexes exhibited empathy-related activation in pain-related brain areas (fronto-insular and anterior cingulate cortices) towards fair players. However, these empathy-related responses were significantly reduced in males when observing an unfair person receiving pain. This effect was accompanied by increased activation in reward-related areas, correlated with an expressed desire for revenge. We conclude that in men (at least) empathic responses are shaped by valuation of other people's social behaviour, such that they empathize with fair opponents while favouring the physical punishment of unfair opponents, a finding that echoes recent evidence for altruistic punishment.     

Altruism through beard chromodynamics

The evolution of altruism, a behaviour that benefits others at one's own fitness expense, poses a darwinian paradox. The paradox is resolved if many interactions are with related individuals so that the benefits of altruism are reaped by copies of the altruistic gene in other individuals, a mechanism called kin selection. However, recognition of altruists could provide an alternative route towards the evolution of altruism. Arguably the simplest recognition system is a conspicuous, heritable tag, such as a green beard. Despite the fact that such genes have been reported, the 'green beard effect' has often been dismissed because it is unlikely that a single gene can code for altruism and a recognizable tag. Here we model the green beard effect and find that if recognition and altruism are always inherited together, the dynamics are highly unstable, leading to the loss of altruism. In contrast, if the effect is caused by loosely coupled separate genes, altruism is facilitated through beard chromodynamics in which many beard colours co-occur. This allows altruism to persist even in weakly structured populations and implies that the green beard effect, in the form of a fluid association of altruistic traits with a recognition tag, can be much more prevalent than hitherto assumed.     

Host sanctions and the legume-rhizobium mutualism

Explaining mutualistic cooperation between species remains one of the greatest problems for evolutionary biology. Why do symbionts provide costly services to a host, indirectly benefiting competitors sharing the same individual host? Host monitoring of symbiont performance and the imposition of sanctions on 'cheats' could stabilize mutualism. Here we show that soybeans penalize rhizobia that fail to fix N(2) inside their root nodules. We prevented a normally mutualistic rhizobium strain from cooperating (fixing N(2)) by replacing air with an N(2)-free atmosphere (Ar:O(2)). A series of experiments at three spatial scales (whole plants, half root systems and individual nodules) demonstrated that forcing non-cooperation (analogous to cheating) decreased the reproductive success of rhizobia by about 50%. Non-invasive monitoring implicated decreased O(2) supply as a possible mechanism for sanctions against cheating rhizobia. More generally, such sanctions by one or both partners may be important in stabilizing a wide range of mutualistic symbioses.     

Social evolution: kin preference in a social microbe

Kin recognition helps cooperation to evolve in many animals, but it is uncertain whether microorganisms can also use it to focus altruistic behaviour on relatives. Here we show that the social amoeba Dictyostelium purpureum prefers to form groups with its own kin in situations where some individuals die to assist others. By directing altruism towards kin, D. purpureum should generally avoid the costs of chimaerism experienced by the related D. discoideum.     

经济法基本原则初论

经济法基本原则是贯穿经济法体系的指导思想。经济法基本原则可以概括为全面发展原则和适度干预原则，前者强调处理好效益、公平以及持续发展之间的关系，后者主张对干预行为进行必要的约束。     

专业教育模式的转变

当不同的人聚集在一起组成一个合作团体时,相互之间很快就会产生矛盾冲突.不同职业的人有其特有的语言和活动范围.这给他们与其他人交流造成了麻烦(Hooper-Briar andLawson,1994).在互助、配合和合作间存在着很大的不同.合作是三者中最高等级的活动.个体间互助和配合时并不需要改动他们原先从事的活动.但在合作中,人们期望新的合作实体能创造出一些个人或组织无法单独创造出的成果(Corrigan,2000).大学可以设计出一种跨学科的模式.在这种模式中,一些合作的专业团体能致力于支持与帮助社区中的家庭和孩子们.对于将来的教育工作者来说,跨学科合作将成为他们与家庭和孩子沟通时极为重要的一项技能.未成年人怀孕、辍学、青少年犯罪、虐待儿童以及对儿童的健康护理问题正引起国内人士及国外诸多社会团体的普遍关注.这些复杂的情况,要求我们在对教育工作范围的评价上要有一套完全不同的方法,在对待教育工作范围的态度上要有所改变.这一套方法就包括健康护理各项服务的合作和联结、学校机构和周围其他多部门环境的调节和预防.前面提到的跨学科合作模式主要强调对未来的领导者、教育者和人类服务的提供者的专业培养.设计这种模式旨在让参与者获得一种知识,掌握一种技能,培养一种性情.这种所谓的知识、技能和性情是想像的,它包含了来自各学科的多种观点,如:看护养育、社会工作、教育工作、咨询服务、法律执行、物理治疗和心理学.     

加强中国—东盟经贸关系促进广西经济发展

随着中国—东盟自由贸易区的建立,人们普遍对中国—东盟的经贸关系持乐观态度。中国—东盟的经济贸易虽然取得了显著的成就,但依然处在较低的经贸水平。在当前经济形势下,中国应进一步加强与东盟的经贸关系。广西作为中国—东盟自由贸易区的桥头堡,与东盟各国发展经贸往来具有得天独厚的优势,广西应该采取加强与东盟各国的经济关系,与东盟各国发展经贸合作。     

利他与合作:生物有机体的生存策略和进化路径

利他与合作是生物有机界普遍存在的现象．进一步研究表明,这类现象与经典的自然选择学说并不相悖,而是对其的进一步发展．利他与合作不过是生物有机体另一种不同的生存策略;利他与合作的进化也只是生物有机体为适应环境而形成的另一条不同的进化路径．     

利他主义人口模型与性别差异的探讨

在单性利他主义理论研究的基础上，通过引入性别比率，建立新的数学模型，得到有着性别差异的的人口公式中利他主义进化的充分条件，从而说明雌性利他主义在利他主义的进化过程中所起的作用。     

Aggression by polyembryonic wasp soldiers correlates with kinship but not resource competition

Kin selection theory predicts that individuals will show less aggression and more altruism towards relatives. However, recent theoretical developments suggest that with limited dispersal, competition between relatives can override the effects of relatedness. The predicted and opposing influences of relatedness and competition are difficult to approach experimentally because conditions that increase average relatedness among individuals also tend to increase competition. Polyembryonic wasps in the family Encyrtidae are parasites whose eggs undergo clonal division to produce large broods. These insects have also evolved a caste system: some embryos in a clone develop into reproductive larvae that mature into adults, whereas others develop into sterile soldier larvae that defend siblings from competitors. In a brood from a single egg, reproductive altruism by soldiers reflects clone-level allocation to defence at the cost of reproduction, with no conflict between individuals. When multiple eggs are laid into a host, inter-clone conflicts of interest arise. Here we report that soldier aggression in Copidosoma floridanum is inversely related to the genetic relatedness of competitors but shows no correlation with the level of resource competition.     

东亚文化裂变中的合作与冲突——从战略文化看中日文化环境的建构

中国高层和日本高层的停止往来预示着中日关系走入低谷,这同时也导致两国交流机制的进一步弱化,以致两国关系的正常化总是艰难跋涉.中日文化的渊源和裂变及对沟通模式理论的探讨,有助于我们以另一种视角来看待中日关系的改善,通过多种协调机制,即在经济、文化、外交等方面来建构国家良性互动的文化环境,一个合作型的战略文化氛围将有利于国家采取合作型的政策取向.