Ethnic parochialism in cooperative behaviour: an experimental study among the Russians and Buryats
In this study we explore the phenomenon of ethnic parochialism in cooperative behaviour as a preference for own ethnic group members while having a neutral or negative attitude towards members of another (alien) group in context of cooperation. The study is based on experimental approach, whereby economic games (the group game 'Public Goods' and the pair game 'Prisoner's Dilemma') were used. Participants of different ethnic origin were grouped in a specific way, thus allowing to evaluate population preferences in cooperative behaviour. The experimental set-up was as close to natural conditions as possible due to the face-to-face interaction method employed, which is a distinctive feature of our approach. The study aimed to assess not just the parochial effect as such (it has already been widely discussed in the literature), but its' contribution to the emergence and effectiveness of cooperation at the individual and group levels. 102 young men aged at 18 to 30 years (25 ± 3 y.) representing two contrast populations - Russians (N = 51) and Buryats (N = 51) - participated in the study. Experimental games involved interactions in 28 unique groups (ethnically homo-and heterogeneous) and 140 unique interactions in dyads with stranger representatives of own or alien populations. The results revealed a complex dynamics in the parochial effect in male cooperation (during face-to-face interactions). The group size was found to negatively impact on cooperation, and the parochial effect was clearly seen to take place only at the group level, increasing with the group size. The mutual influence of multidirectional factors (cooperation was weaker in larger groups and was stronger in ethnically homogeneous groups) resulted in the fact that the general parochial effect was not observed at the individual level (pair interactions), where individual qualities of partners bore greater significance than their membership in a given population. At the level of small groups, the parochial effect was very strong (ethnically homogeneous groups were characterized by increased cooperation and effectiveness). In large groups, however, the parochial effect was not found (cooperation was weak regardless of the groups' ethnic composition). Furthermore, we found some signs of parochial cooperation in the pair interactions of the Buryats as opposed to the Russians that did not demonstrate those. The article discusses these results from the evolutionary perspective.
Keywords
кооперация,
альтруизм,
парохиализм,
русские,
буряты,
глобализация,
эволюция социальности,
групповой отбор,
экономические игры,
cooperation,
altruism,
parochialism,
Russians,
Buryats,
globalisation,
evolution of sociality,
group selection,
economic games * The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant No. 18-18-00075,
principal investigator Marina L. Butovskaya)Authors
| Rostovtseva Viktoria Viktorovna | Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences | victoria.v.rostovtseva@gmail.com |
| Butovskaya Marina Lvovna | Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences; Lomonosov Moscow State University; Russian State University for the Humanities | marina.butovskaya@gmail.com |
Всего: 2
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