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The Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship

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  • Peter DeScioli
  • Robert Kurzban

Abstract

Background: Exploration of the cognitive systems underlying human friendship will be advanced by identifying the evolved functions these systems perform. Here we propose that human friendship is caused, in part, by cognitive mechanisms designed to assemble support groups for potential conflicts. We use game theory to identify computations about friends that can increase performance in multi-agent conflicts. This analysis suggests that people would benefit from: 1) ranking friends, 2) hiding friend-ranking, and 3) ranking friends according to their own position in partners' rankings. These possible tactics motivate the hypotheses that people possess egocentric and allocentric representations of the social world, that people are motivated to conceal this information, and that egocentric friend-ranking is determined by allocentric representations of partners' friend-rankings (more than others' traits). Methodology/Principal Findings: We report results from three studies that confirm predictions derived from the alliance hypothesis. Our main empirical finding, replicated in three studies, was that people's rankings of their ten closest friends were predicted by their own perceived rank among their partners' other friends. This relationship remained strong after controlling for a variety of factors such as perceived similarity, familiarity, and benefits. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that the alliance hypothesis merits further attention as a candidate explanation for human friendship.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter DeScioli & Robert Kurzban, 2009. "The Alliance Hypothesis for Human Friendship," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(6), pages 1-8, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0005802
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005802
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gabriele Schino, 2007. "Grooming and agonistic support: a meta-analysis of primate reciprocal altruism," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 18(1), pages 115-120, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Moore, Alexander K. & Lewis, Joshua & Levine, Emma E. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2023. "Benevolent friends and high integrity leaders: How preferences for benevolence and integrity change across relationships," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    2. DeScioli, Peter & Krishna, Siddhi, 2013. "Giving to whom? Altruism in different types of relationships," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 218-228.
    3. Kevin M Kniffin & Brian Wansink, 2012. "It’s Not Just Lunch: Extra-Pair Commensality Can Trigger Sexual Jealousy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-4, July.

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