Policing institutions substitute for kinship in genetically diverse populations

Evidence

If freeriding—the act of receiving benefits without reciprocating—incurs a reliably hefty punitive cost, potential freeriders may restrain their selfish urges. Punishment of selfish acts is an effective strategy that stabilizes cooperation, but it pushes the problem further back: monitoring and punishing freeriders itself can be costly, which means that individuals would rather see someone else punish selfish individuals and enjoy the fruits of cooperative groups. It creates opportunities for people to freeride on their punishment duties. One solution to this problem, of course, is third-party punishment—that is, policing institutions. A study done in Switzerland, for example, found that in cantons with genetically homogenous populations, where kinship ties are strong, people rely on the police less. However, in cantons with greater genetic diversity, reliance on police increases, exactly as would be expected if policing institutions were designed to enforce cooperation among strangers. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 35

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Sets up the puzzle that Big Gods solve: as kin ties weaken, some impersonal enforcement must replace them — prime material for the reader’s mechanism-tracing between Norenzayan and Rodrigues.

Related

• Policing institutions substitute for kin-based altruism where populations are genetically diverse. (similarity 0.92)

Broader Connections

• Trust in impartial institutions substitutes for supernatural monitoring of strangers. #corroborates (0.85)
• Institutions substitute for the need to trust in risky interactions #expands (0.82)
• Kinship-based trust fails when its sanctioning institutions do not migrate #qualifies (0.80)
• Kinship and reciprocity alone cannot explain large-scale human cooperation #corroborates (0.78) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 648
• Under modern states, personal safety depends on patronage chains rather than kin groups #qualifies (0.75)
• Trust limits help explain cliques, familism, and ethnic exclusion. #expands (0.75)
• Collapse of state institutions strengthened lineage elders and clan identity #contradicts (0.70) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 666