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Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship

Online ISBN:
9780520947887
Print ISBN:
9780520265462
Publisher:
University of California Press
Book

Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship

Published:
24 September 2010
Online ISBN:
9780520947887
Print ISBN:
9780520265462
Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract

Friends—they are generous and cooperative with each other in ways that appear to defy standard evolutionary expectations, frequently sacrificing for one another without concern for past behaviors or future consequences. This multidisciplinary study synthesizes an array of cross-cultural, experimental, and ethnographic data to understand the broad meaning of friendship, how it develops, how it interfaces with kinship and romantic relationships, and how it differs from place to place. The book argues that friendship is a special form of reciprocal altruism based not on tit-for-tat accounting or forward-looking rationality, but rather on mutual goodwill that is built up along the way in human relationships.

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