<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Our thesis is that the reason many of us today are inclined toward socialism (explicit cooperation) and against laissez-faire capitalism (implicit cooperation) is because the first type of behavior was much more genetically beneficial during previous generations of our species. There is, however, a seemingly strong argument against this hypothesis: evidence from human prehistory indicates that trade (implicit cooperation) previously was widespread. How, then, can we be hard-wired in favor of socialism and against capitalism if our ancestors were engaged in market behavior in past millennia? Although trade which is self-centered and beneficial (presumably mutually beneficial to all parties in the exchange) did indeed appear hundreds of thousands of years ago, benevolence was established in our hard-wiring very substantially earlier, literally hundreds of millions of years ago, and is therefore far more deeply integrated into the human psyche.</p></abstract>

Our thesis is that the reason many of us today are inclined toward socialism (explicit cooperation) and against laissez-faire capitalism (implicit cooperation) is because the first type of behavior was much more genetically beneficial during previous generations of our species. There is, however, a seemingly strong argument against this hypothesis: evidence from human prehistory indicates that trade (implicit cooperation) previously was widespread. How, then, can we be hard-wired in favor of socialism and against capitalism if our ancestors were engaged in market behavior in past millennia? Although trade which is self-centered and beneficial (presumably mutually beneficial to all parties in the exchange) did indeed appear hundreds of thousands of years ago, benevolence was established in our hard-wiring very substantially earlier, literally hundreds of millions of years ago, and is therefore far more deeply integrated into the human psyche.

Evolutionary psychology, economic freedom, trade and benevolence

Developmental Genetics and Evolutionary Morphology

Review of Economic Perspectives

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Evolutionary psychology, economic freedom, trade and benevolence"}

Our thesis is that the reason many of us today are inclined toward socialism (explicit cooperation) and against laissez-faire capitalism (implicit cooperation)...

Evolutionary psychology, economic freedom, trade and benevolence

Published Online: Jun 26, 2019

Page range: 73 - 94

Received: Jun 25, 2018

Accepted: Apr 10, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2019-0005

Keywords
Benevolence, capitalism, evolutionary psychology, hard-wiring, profit and loss, selfishness

© 2019 John Levendis et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Evolutionary psychology, economic freedom, trade and benevolence

Published Online: Jun 26, 2019

Page range: 73 - 94

Received: Jun 25, 2018

Accepted: Apr 10, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2019-0005

KeywordsBenevolence, capitalism, evolutionary psychology, hard-wiring, profit and loss, selfishness

© 2019 John Levendis et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Benevolence, capitalism, evolutionary psychology, hard-wiring, profit and loss, selfishness