Mod 4 Quiz

Question 1

altruism

Answer 1

when behavior benefits other organisms, at a cost to itself (the organism)

Question 2

cooperate

Answer 2

the process where groups of organisms work or act together for common or mutual benefits

Question 3

defect

Answer 3

not cooperating (in a group setting)

Question 4

mutualism

Answer 4

a relationship in which both species are benefited

Question 5

game theory

Answer 5

players attempting to maximize payoffs by interactive decision making ; tool for predicting the best strategy

Question 6

payoff matrix

Answer 6

a table that contains the options that are available to players of a game

Question 7

prisoner’s dilemma

Answer 7

two strategies that can cause a certain amount in jail (punishment) and which will one choose:
1. snitch
2. silent

Question 8

reciprocal altruism

Answer 8

individuals balance reciprocal acts ; “i’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”

Question 9

dictator game

Answer 9

questions the assumption that individuals will act solely out of self-interest

Question 10

ultimatum game

Answer 10

two players, a proposer and a responder, bargain over a fixed amount of money ; punishment is important for maintaining cooperation

Question 11

inequity aversion

Answer 11

dislike distributions that are not balanced

Question 12

what is the definition of cooperation, and why is it puzzling?

Answer 12

a) when an individual acts in a manner that benefits others
b) why cooperate when you could ‘cheat’ and reap the benefits from others’ cooperation without suffering any costs?

Question 13

how is human cooperation special (in terms of frequency, contexts, strangers, etc)?

Answer 13

humans will cooperate with individuals that they will, likely, never see again

Question 14

how does kin selection help explain cooperation among relatives?

Answer 14

1) related individuals often cluster
2) altruism can evolve through kin selection

Question 15

what are some examples of non-kin cooperation in non-human primates?

Answer 15

1) remora hitching a ride from a sea turtle
2) monkeys grooming each other
3) sea things cleaning sharks back for food

Question 16

what is mutualism, and when will it evolve?

Answer 16

1) benefit of all parties
2) evolves when there is no benefit to slacking off

Question 17

what is game theory, and why is useful?

Answer 17

1) players attempting to maximize payoffs by interactive decision making
2) tool for predicting the best strategy

Question 18

what does the payoff matrix for a mutualism look like?

Answer 18

cooperating always yields a higher immediate payoff than defecting (not cooperating)

Question 19

what is the best strategy for
player a when b cooperates? when b defects?

Answer 19

payoff (benefit) to individual a ; regardless of b’s strategy, the best strategy for a is to cooperate

Question 20

in prisoner’s dilemma - what strategy yields the biggest payoff for a if b cooperates? If b defects? what does this mean for the evolution of cooperation?

Answer 20

1) if both are silent then they both only get 6 months
2) a will get 10 years in jail
3) the prisoner’s dilemma exists in nature and it persists

Question 21

are there cases in the wild where animals appear to face the equivalent of a prisoner’s dilemma?

Answer 21

yes, an example would be vervet monkey’s and vampire bats

Question 22

what is reciprocal altruism, and how does it help explain cooperation, even if animals face a prisoner’s dilemma?

Answer 22

1) “i’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”
2) individuals balance reciprocal acts; such as grooming, food sharing, etc.

Question 23

is reciprocal altruism widespread in humans?

Answer 23

yes

Question 24

how do we explain random acts of kindness in humans? helping strangers (sometimes risking one’s life)?

Answer 24

cooperating helps to improve relationships

Question 25

what do the results of cross-cultural dictator and ultimatum games tell us about human tendencies regarding fairness?

Answer 25

they are not as clear cut as de waal made it seem

Question 26

are humans inequity averse?

Answer 26

yes

Question 27

is punishment important for maintaining human cooperation?

Answer 27

yes

Question 28

do non-human primates care about fairness?

Answer 28

chimpanzees are not averse to inequity and do not punish

Question 29

what is lethal coalitionary aggression, and is it rare or common in the animal kingdom?

Answer 29

1) power groups of coresident males bonded by kinship 2) very rare

Question 30

how would you characterize chimpanzee territoriality?

Answer 30

lethal coalitionary - very violent and protective of their area

Question 31

what sorts of behaviors do chimps exhibit territorially?

Answer 31

border patrol, specific calls, and violent

Question 32

how many individuals (chimps) participate in guarding the territory?

Answer 32

shifts as they walk around the territory

Question 33

under what circumstances do chimps attack for their territory?

Answer 33

if an animal(s) has invaded it and it does not belong to their group

Question 34

when attacks occur, are they usually many vs. one? or when groups are evenly matched?

Answer 34

1) if the patrol outweighs the trespassers then they fight 2) not as often when they are evenly matched

Question 35

are attackers usually injured (in chimps)?

Answer 35

yes! chimps are very violent to them

Question 36

why do chimpanzees attack their neighbors?

Answer 36

the distribution of food causes chimpanzees to have a fission-fusion social system --> in order to secure more resources or mates

Question 37

what are the main predictions of the imbalance of power hypothesis?

Answer 37

1) power asymmetry between opponents provokes attack 2) power symmetry suppresses attack

Question 38

what are the results of the wilson et al. studies?

Answer 38

?????

Question 39

how is human warfare evolutionarily novel in terms of: scale, relatedness of participants and reproductive status of participants

Answer 39

large scale, unrelated, and reproductive

Question 40

what is the turkana people's subsistence strategy?

Answer 40

subsistence pastoralists—little production for market

Question 41

do the turkana people have leaders? government?

Answer 41

no

Question 42

what are the turkana people's settlements like?

Answer 42

live in small nomadic settlements

Question 43

what kinds of raids do the turkana perform against neighboring tribes?

Answer 43

offense: stealth & force raids defense: patrols, reinforcement, homestead defense

Question 44

what are the characteristics of these raids?

Answer 44

informal mobilization ; no formal command structure ; no joint training

Question 45

are raid participants typically related? do they always know each other?

Answer 45

???

Question 46

what is the probability of dying on a force raid?

Answer 46

1.1%

Question 47

what are the benefits of raiding?

Answer 47

marry earlier/have more people to reproduce with

Question 48

what does professor mathew’s research reveal about why turkana men participate in raids?

Answer 48

punishment is key in humans??

Question 49

cultural evolution

Answer 49

1) by 10,000 years ago, humans occupied every terrestrial habitat except antarctica 2) humans are very good at learning and causal reasoning tasks (but not that good) 3) people who left africa were tropical foragers 4) artic circle problem!

Question 50

imitation

Answer 50

a) an increase of the ability of a population to adapt only if imitation increases the fitness of learners b) 1) selective hearing ; 2) accumulation of small improvements

Question 51

conclusion of imitation and cumulative culture

Answer 51

1) hard problems = ignore reason (don't need to understand why) and copy others 2) easy problems = figure out yourself 3) people have to believe others

Question 52

maladaptive ideas

Answer 52

prestige bias, which is the tendency to imitate successful people ; but, sometimes it’s hard to know what constitutes “success”

Question 53

historical perspective on race

Answer 53

linneaus - classified 4 human subspecies, corresponding to american, european, asian & african. - based on skin and hair color

Question 54

anthropological interest in race

Answer 54

1) craniometry 2) social darwinism 3) criminal anthropology 4) eugenics

Question 55

craniometry

Answer 55

measurement of the skull - claim that skull size correlated with intelligence and phrenology

Question 56

phrenology

Answer 56

shape & contours of skull reveal talents and abilities

Question 57

social darwinism

Answer 57

physical traits used to ‘justify’ discrimination

Question 58

criminal anthropology (lombroso)

Answer 58

idea that criminals are born that way; 1) Atavism, 2) Criminals are apes, “throwbacks” (more than 5 traits leads to genetic predisposition)

Question 59

atavism

Answer 59

evolutionary ‘primitive’ traits occasionally reappear

Question 60

eugenics

Answer 60

society’s problems can be solved by controlling gene pool, remove “undesirables” ; people were sterilized

Question 61

problems with eugenics

Answer 61

1) reification – labels are not meaningful 2) arbitrariness – who decides who is fit? 3) hereditarianism – assumes all behaviors are genetic 4) superiority (i.e., “fitness”) is time dependent

Question 62

ancient dna (aDNA)

Answer 62

1) DNA can be preserved for hundreds, thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of years (under the right conditions) 2) aDNA can give us lots of information about many different things, including dispersal, evolutionary relationships, etc *teeth is a good place to find aDNA*

Question 63

how is aDNA a challenge to work with?

Answer 63

1) it degrades easily, either from the bacteria that decomposed the corpse, or from heat and humidity 2) scientists have to be very careful not to contaminate samples with their own DNA – can change the results 3) often have to destroy a specimen to extract aDNA

Question 64

how is the DNA between the neandertals and homo sapiens compared

Answer 64

1) genomes of modern humans (of non-african origin) contain 1% - 4% neandertal DNA 2) interbreeding!

Question 65

fate of neandertals

Answer 65

1) likely to be a combination 2) there was certainly some genetic assimilation b/c there are neandertal genes in our genomes

Question 66

how is human behavior shaped?

Answer 66

a mix of genes and environment - some is innate and some is learned

Question 67

evolutionary psychology

Answer 67

the goal of this field is to understand how humans think - the brain developed in a different type of environment and that relates to how many problems of society

Question 68

wason selection task

Answer 68

illustrates that humans are better at logic when it involves a social contract, particularly detecting cheaters

Question 69

inbreeding avoidance behavior

Answer 69

1) close relatives are likely to carry alleles for the same diseases 2) increases the likelihood of combining two heterozygous individuals for the same disease, making inbreeding a behavior that would decrease one’s fitness 3) natural selection should therefore favor behavioral adaptations that reduce the tendency for humans to want to engage in inbreeding

Question 70

how to avoid inbreeding?

Answer 70

1) leave natal group at sexual maturity (chimps) 2) sexual consorts between between siblings are less cohesive than unrelated individuals

Question 71

how do animals recognize kin?

Answer 71

1) contextual cues (association) 2) phenotypic matching (smell, physical likeness to self)

Question 72

the westermarch effect

Answer 72

adults are not attracted to individuals they grew up with (supportive evidence: "minor marriages" in china and kibbutizm in israel)

Question 73

female mating preferences

Answer 73

1) resources are the limiting factor 2) should therefore prefer males that can provide for her (and her offspring)

Question 74

male mating preferences

Answer 74

1) female fertility is the limiting factor 2) prefer females that are healthy and fertile

Question 75

what is race as a biological concept?

Answer 75

geographically circumscribed, genetically differentiated population

Question 76

if humans can be biologically divided into races, what would be expected?

Answer 76

1) to see biological variation across geographic regions 2) to see biologically distinct populations, (which means: easily identifiable groups with minimal gene flow between them and the biological differences between groups are not solely adaptive)

Question 77

can we identify distinct groups of humans?

Answer 77

there is geographic variation but even if we could decide on the number of races there is no one place that they would all live in AND there are too many traits to consider

Question 78

myth of the primitive isolate

Answer 78

the idea that at some point early in our species history there were isolated, pristine populations of “pure” races that did not interbreed, and that races today descended from these ancient races (doesn't match behavior of early homo)

Question 79

genetic data

Answer 79

there is more genetic variation within “traditional” races or populations than between them (traditional race divisions explain only 6-10% of all genetic variation found within humans)

Question 80

convergent evolution

Answer 80

create people with similar traits in different parts of the world that have similar climate (head shape, nose shape, skin color, body build)

Question 81

allen's rule

Answer 81

animals in cold climates tend to have large, stout bodies, while those in hot climates have long, thin bodies

Question 82

can allen's rule have the same meaning between humans?

Answer 82

yes ; artic = shorter, stout while tropical/equatorial = tall, lean

Question 83

what are the two main sources of biological variation among humans?

Answer 83

1) acclimation 2) adaption

Question 84

acclimation

Answer 84

short term changes that reflect responses to specific environmental conditions ; manifested within an individual person

Question 85

adaption

Answer 85

manifested at the population level ; results from changes in allele frequencies

Question 86

examples of adaption include what?

Answer 86

high altitude adaption ; skin color adaption

Question 87

what is the correct answer to the variation of biological race?

Answer 87

the result of adaptation to the environment rather than long-term isolation

Question 88

bioarcheology

Answer 88

analysis of human skeletal remains recovered from archaeological sites (primary goal: understand lifestyles of past peoples)

Question 89

where do they study bioarcheology?

Answer 89

mass burials/cemeteries

Question 90

epidemiology

Answer 90

study of the determinants, dynamics and distribution of disease

Question 91

what are the major determinants of mortality

Answer 91

1) infectious 2) chronic/degenerative 3) accidental/occupational 3) inter-personal violence

Question 92

epidemiological transition theory:

Answer 92

general shift from acute infectious diseases characteristic of underdevelopment to chronic non-contagious diseases characteristic of modernization and advanced levels of development

Question 93

paleopathology

Answer 93

study of disease in the past using evidence of disease in bones and teeth

Question 94

what's a major caveat to paleopathology?

Answer 94

1) limited to only those diseases that involve the skeleton 2) one can have a disease but still have a healthy skeleton

Question 95

generalized metabolic stress

Answer 95

most infectious diseases, does not directly affect the skeleton (measuring stress is often more informative than considering specific diseases)

Question 96

forensic anthropology

Answer 96

deals with skeletonized or decomposed remains for the purpose of aiding in a legal investigation

Question 97

what are the elements to a forensic investigation?

Answer 97

1) determine if remains are of medical or legal significance 2) participate in archaeological recovery 3) identify the victim (establish a biological profile) 4) reconstruct cause of death and interpret crime scene (gunshot wound, homicide, etc.)

Question 98

peri-mortem vs post-mortem

Answer 98

peri = before and post = after