Parochial altruism and self-sacrifice exceed mutualistic fairness models.

Evidence

For Darwin himself, moral virtue was most clearly associated not with universally mundane intuitions, beliefs, and behaviors about fairness and reciprocity, emotionally supported by empathy and consolation, but with an unevenly distributed propensity to what we nowadays call “parochial altruism” (Choi & Bowles 2007): especially extreme selfsacrifice in war and other intense forms of human conflict, where likely prospects for individual and even group survival had very low initial probability (Darwin 1871). Heroism, martyrdom, and other forms of self-sacrifice for the group appear to go beyond the mutualistic principles of fairness and reciprocity. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 269

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s stated analysis of Father Rodrigues’ self-sacrifice in Silence versus the Japanese fumi-e strategy. — connects to: Exposure to intergroup conflict determines a population’s mix of self-interest and self-sacrifice.; Fairness-driven giving is distinct from welfare-trade-off favoritism. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 16; Mutualistic anthropology explains moral anger as an evolved fairness-restoring mechanism — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality: The…, 354 (+8 more)
• ADDENDUM: Links to the ‘On Sacrifice’ article — this passage situates heroism/martyrdom as distinct from reciprocal fairness, a complementary frame to ritual sacrifice as social stabilizer.

Related

• Exposure to intergroup conflict determines a population’s mix of self-interest and self-sacrifice. (similarity 0.84)
• Mutualistic cost-benefit logic may explain transcendent moral sentiment. (similarity 0.84)
• Morality is about fair cooperation, not maximizing welfare. (similarity 0.82)
• Deriving fairness from bargaining power threatens to reduce moral norms to mere bargaining. (similarity 0.81)
• Moral psychology broadened fairness-only models to include purity, hierarchy, and coalition domains. (similarity 0.81)
• Fairness-driven giving is distinct from welfare-trade-off favoritism. (similarity 0.81)
• Mutualistic anthropology explains moral anger as an evolved fairness-restoring mechanism (similarity 0.80)
• Ego depletion causes less fair reward allocation. (similarity 0.80)
• Human morality may rest on a general normativizing capacity, not a dedicated fairness module. (similarity 0.79)
• Rural agrarian Indians reward self-sacrifice where urban groups do not. (similarity 0.79)
• Morality extends beyond fairness among strangers to relational obligations (similarity 0.78)
• Self-regulation, not fairness alone, enables prosocial culture. (similarity 0.78)
• Fairness rests on impartiality, not mutualistic cooperation. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Morality extends beyond fairness among strangers to relational obligations #expands (0.85) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 333
• Fairness regulates rather than generates the moralized expression of evolved dispositions #qualifies (0.78) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 692