The freeloader dilemma drives evolution of cues discriminating cooperators from cheats.
Evidence
The dilemma of the traveling salesman is essentially the main problem of large, anonymous societies, where strangers have opportunities to interact with each other; mutual trust is beneficial to everyone, as they all reap the rewards of cooperation. Not trusting at all is worse, but not as costly as trusting the freerider or the cheater. This dilemma is behind the cultural selection pressures that have led people to calibrate their psychology to particular culturally learned cues that reliably discriminate cooperators from freeriders and cheats. One such powerful cue is whether or not a stranger believes herself to be under supernatural surveillance. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 211
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships