Hadza with greater exposure to other cultures (schooling or participating in the market economy) shared more preferentially with campmates they ranked higher on generosity; the others showed no preference to sharing with generous campmates

Hadza hunter-gatherers with greater exposure to other cultures preferentially share with generous campmates. Kristopher M Smith. Human Behavior & Evolution Society HBES 2021, Jun-Jul 2021. https://osf.io/p9kmt

Abstract: Researchers hypothesize that we have an evolved partner choice psychology that tracks the cooperative reputations of others and motivates us to compete for access to cooperative partners, such as by sharing more with them. However, recent models and evidence suggest cultural institutions shape this partner choice psychology. Here we test Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania similarly share more with people perceived as cooperators and whether this is moderated by exposure to other cultures. Ninety-two Hadza ranked eight of their campmates on generosity and foraging ability and then played a game in which they could direct finite resources to those campmates. We found that Hadza with greater exposure to other cultures, such as via schooling or participating in the market economy, shared more preferentially with campmates they ranked higher on generosity, whereas Hadza with lower exposure showed no preference to sharing with generous campmates. However, this moderating effect was specific to generosity—regardless of exposure, Hadza did not share more preferentially with campmates ranked higher on foraging ability. These results suggest that cultural institutions shape Hadza partner choice psychology.