Models of decision-making and the coevolution of social preferences Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We would like to thank the commentators for their generous comments, valuable insights and helpful suggestions. We begin this response by discussing the selfishness axiom and the importance of the preferences, beliefs, and constraints framework as a way of modeling some of the proximate influences on human behavior. Next, we broaden the discussion to ultimate-level (that is evolutionary) explanations, where we review and clarify gene-culture coevolutionary theory, and then tackle the possibility that evolutionary approaches that exclude culture might be sufficient to explain the data. Finally, we consider various methodological and epistemological concerns expressed by our commentators.

published proceedings

  • BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES

author list (cited authors)

  • Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., ... Tracer, D.

citation count

  • 21

complete list of authors

  • Henrich, J||Boyd, R||Bowles, S||Camerer, C||Fehr, E||Gintis, H||McElreath, R||Alvard, M||Barr, A||Ensminger, J||Henrich, NS||Hill, K||Gil-White, F||Gurven, M||Marlowe, FW||Patton, JQ||Tracer, D

publication date

  • December 2005