Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/10/2022
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Speaker: Dr. Patrick Barclay, University Guelph

Title: New Developmentsin Reputation & Cooperation

Abstract: Popular wisdom saysthat “nice guys finish last”. Similarly, most people’s perceptions of naturalselection is of a cutthroat “survival of the fittest” where niceness getsruthlessly winnowed out. Is this how evolution actually works? In contrast tothis stark view, modern evolutionary researchers have shown that naturalselection often results in the evolution of cooperation: cooperating withothers is a very effective strategy which – if done well under the rightconditions – can bring great benefits to those who help others. Notably,helpful behaviour provides information to others about one’s ability andwillingness to help others – qualities which are useful to broadcast. People(and other organisms) who help others acquire a good reputation that makesothers more willing to help, trust, associate with, and even mate with helpers.These reputational benefits result in high levels of cooperation, and evencause people to compete to be more generous than others. This perspectiveleads to new findings on cooperation in many domains, includingenvironmentalism, punishment, moral judgments, charitable donations,friendships, and yes… even romantic relationships. 

Wewill have a livestream on the YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/pnbcolloquia.