The content and structure of reputation domains across human societies: a view from the evolutionary social sciences

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Vol/Iss. 376(1838) Royal Society London Published In Pages: 1-10
By Garfield, Zachary H., Schacht, Ryan, Post, Emily R., Ingram, Dominique, Uehling, Dominique, Macfarlan, Shane J.

Abstract

Reputations are an important aspect of human social interactions and cooperation, but much of the research on reputations has focused on a narrow range of domains such as prosociality and aggressiveness. This study aims to provide an empirical view of reputation domains across different cultures by analyzing ethnographic texts on reputations from 153 cultures. The findings suggest that reputational domains vary across cultures, with reputations for cultural conformity, prosociality, social status, and neural capital being widespread. Reputation domains are more variable for males than females, and certain reputation domains are interrelated. The study highlights the need for future research on the evolution of cooperation and human sociality to consider a wider range of reputation domains and their variability across different social and ecological contexts and genders.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
eHRAF World CulturesResearchers' own153 cultures, 1383 paragraphs, 319 documents

Documents and Hypotheses Filed By:anj.droe jacob.kalodner