Coding ethnographic texts on reputations from 153 cultures, found that reputational domains vary cross-culturally, yet reputations for cultural conformity, prosociality, social status, and neural capital are widespread

Garfield, Zachary H., Ryan Schacht, Emily R. Post, Dominique Ingram, Andrea Uehling, and Shane Macfarlan. 2021. “The Content and Structure of Reputation Domains Across Human Societies: A View from the Evolutionary Social Sciences.” OSF Preprints. July 2. doi:10.31219/osf.io/mk4wq

Abstract: Reputations are an essential feature of human sociality, critical for the evolution of cooperation and group living. Much scholarship has focused on reputations, yet typically on a narrow range of domains (e.g., prosociality, aggressiveness), usually in isolation. Humans can develop reputations, however, from any collective information. We conducted exploratory analyses on the content, distribution, and structure of reputation domain diversity across cultures, using the Human Relations Area Files ethnographic database. After coding ethnographic texts on reputations from 153 cultures, we used hierarchical modelling, cluster analysis, and text analysis to provide an empirical view of reputation domains across societies. Findings suggest: 1) reputational domains vary cross-culturally, yet reputations for cultural conformity, prosociality, social status, and neural capital are widespread; 2) reputation domains are more variable for males than females; and 3) particular reputation domains are strongly interrelated, demonstrating a structure consistent with dimensions of human uniqueness. We label these reputational features: Cultural group unity, Dominance, Sexuality, Social and material success, and Supernatural healing. Ultimately, through this work, we highlight the need for future research on the evolution of cooperation and human sociality to consider a wider range of reputation domains, as well as their patterning by social, ecological, and gender-specific pressures.