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Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy

Socially imposed monogamy in humans is an evolutionary puzzle because it requires costly punishment by those who impose the norm. Moreover, most societies were—and are—polygynous; yet many larger human societies transitioned from polygyny to socially imposed monogamy beginning with the advent of agr...

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Autores principales: Bauch, Chris T., McElreath, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4832056/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27044573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11219
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author Bauch, Chris T.
McElreath, Richard
author_facet Bauch, Chris T.
McElreath, Richard
author_sort Bauch, Chris T.
collection PubMed
description Socially imposed monogamy in humans is an evolutionary puzzle because it requires costly punishment by those who impose the norm. Moreover, most societies were—and are—polygynous; yet many larger human societies transitioned from polygyny to socially imposed monogamy beginning with the advent of agriculture and larger residential groups. We use a simulation model to explore how interactions between group size, sexually transmitted infection (STI) dynamics and social norms can explain the timing and emergence of socially imposed monogamy. Polygyny dominates when groups are too small to sustain STIs. However, in larger groups, STIs become endemic (especially in concurrent polygynist networks) and have an impact on fertility, thereby mediating multilevel selection. Punishment of polygynists improves monogamist fitness within groups by reducing their STI exposure, and between groups by enabling punishing monogamist groups to outcompete polygynists. This suggests pathways for the emergence of socially imposed monogamy, and enriches our understanding of costly punishment evolution.
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spelling pubmed-48320562016-04-25 Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy Bauch, Chris T. McElreath, Richard Nat Commun Article Socially imposed monogamy in humans is an evolutionary puzzle because it requires costly punishment by those who impose the norm. Moreover, most societies were—and are—polygynous; yet many larger human societies transitioned from polygyny to socially imposed monogamy beginning with the advent of agriculture and larger residential groups. We use a simulation model to explore how interactions between group size, sexually transmitted infection (STI) dynamics and social norms can explain the timing and emergence of socially imposed monogamy. Polygyny dominates when groups are too small to sustain STIs. However, in larger groups, STIs become endemic (especially in concurrent polygynist networks) and have an impact on fertility, thereby mediating multilevel selection. Punishment of polygynists improves monogamist fitness within groups by reducing their STI exposure, and between groups by enabling punishing monogamist groups to outcompete polygynists. This suggests pathways for the emergence of socially imposed monogamy, and enriches our understanding of costly punishment evolution. Nature Publishing Group 2016-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4832056/ /pubmed/27044573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11219 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Bauch, Chris T.
McElreath, Richard
Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
title Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
title_full Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
title_fullStr Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
title_full_unstemmed Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
title_short Disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
title_sort disease dynamics and costly punishment can foster socially imposed monogamy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4832056/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27044573
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11219
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