Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25253457›Full record

ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2014

The evolutionary interplay of intergroup conflict and altruism in humans: a review of parochial altruism theory and prospects for its extension.

Hannes Rusch

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
45citing papers in PubMed
53.2field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

45 citing papers in PubMed, 175 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Dissociable glucocorticoid and noradrenergic effects on parochial cooperation and competition in intergroup conflict.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Trial
  2. Article
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  5. Article
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  8. No strong evidence for universal gender differences in the development of cooperative behaviour across societies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Modelling behaviour in intergroup conflicts: a review of microeconomic approaches.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Review
  12. Key individuals catalyse intergroup violence.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Review
  13. Intergroup conflict: origins, dynamics and consequences across taxa.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Article
  14. Parochial cooperation in wild chimpanzees: a model to explain the evolution of parochial altruism.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Review
  15. Variation between species, populations, groups and individuals in the fitness consequences of out-group conflict.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Review
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Culture and group-functional punishment behaviour.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022
    Article
  19. Networks of reliable reputations and cooperation: a review.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021
    Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

Hannes RuschBehavioural and Institutional Economics, JLU Giessen, Giessen, Germany Philosophy of Biology, JLU Giessen, Giessen, Germany Peter Löscher Chair of Business Ethics, TU München, Arcisstrasse 21, Munich 80333, Germany hannes.rusch@tum.de.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Drawing on an idea proposed by Darwin, it has recently been hypothesized that violent intergroup conflict might have played a substantial role in the evolution of human cooperativeness and altruism. The central notion of this argument, dubbed 'parochial altruism', is that the two genetic or cultural traits, aggressiveness against the out-groups and cooperativeness towards the in-group, including self-sacrificial altruistic behaviour, might have coevolved in humans. This review assesses the explanatory power of current theories of 'parochial altruism'. After a brief synopsis of the existing literature, two pitfalls in the interpretation of the most widely used models are discussed: potential direct benefits and high relatedness between group members implicitly induced by assumptions about conflict structure and frequency. Then, a number of simplifying assumptions made in the construction of these models are pointed out which currently limit their explanatory power. Next, relevant empirical evidence from several disciplines which could guide future theoretical extensions is reviewed. Finally, selected alternative accounts of evolutionary links between intergroup conflict and intragroup cooperation are briefly discussed which could be integrated with parochial altruism in the future.

Indexed as

AltruismBiological EvolutionConflict, PsychologicalAggressionAnimalsCooperative BehaviorCultureFemaleHumansMaleModels, Theoreticalaltruismcoevolutioncooperationintergroup conflictparochialismwarfare

Identifiers

PMID25253457
PMCPMC4211448
OpenAlexW2116385047

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.