Question

How does strong reciprocity stabilize altruistic behaviors? Why is group selection still needed to maintain moralistic punishment? Why does human cultural evolution and social learning make group selection much more effective?

Answer 1

Reciprocal altruism is behaviour where an organism act in a manner that temporarily is not beneficial to the doer but lately proves to be beneficial to another organism. Strong reciprocity allows this to happen in lieu to the similar kind of deeds performed by the receiver in the previous statements.

Thus, Strong reciprocity stabilizes co-operation and is considered self-realizing when common within a group.

Group selection is essential for determining moralistic punishment. It is so because the presence of other people affects not only the punisher but also the influence the extent of their punishment in a positive direction. Presence of people in a group impacts the cognitive systems determining moralistic sentiments

Group selection is quite effective in cultural evolution because conformism through cultural transmission reduces intra group variation. However on the other end this stabilizes the cultural variation between the groups.