Abstract
We investigated whether names in common promote altruistic behaviour, predicting that this would be especially so for relatively uncommon names, for surnames (which are better kinship cues than first names), and among women (who, although less willing than men to help strangers, according to prior research, are also the primary "kin keepers"). We solicited help from 2960 email addressees, with the request ostensibly coming from a same-sex person sharing both, either, or neither of the addressee's first and last names. As anticipated, addressees were most likely to respond helpfully when senders shared both their names (12.3%) and least likely when they shared neither (2.0%), and this was especially true for relatively uncommon names. A shared surname was more effective than a shared first name only if it was relatively uncommon. Women were substantially more likely to reply than men. These results indicate that names elicit altruism because they function as salient cues of kinship.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (139.2 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Barrai I., Rodriguez-Larralde A., Mamolini E., Manni F., Scapoli C. Isonymy structure of USA population. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2001 Feb;114(2):109–123. doi: 10.1002/1096-8644(200102)114:2<109::AID-AJPA1011>3.0.CO;2-I. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Caravello GianUmberto, Tasso Miro. An analysis of the spatial distribution of surnames in the Lecco area (Lombardy, Italy). Am J Hum Biol. 1999;11(3):305–315. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6300(1999)11:3<305::AID-AJHB3>3.0.CO;2-#. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hamilton W. D. The genetical evolution of social behaviour. I. J Theor Biol. 1964 Jul;7(1):1–16. doi: 10.1016/0022-5193(64)90038-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hatchwell B. J., Ross D. J., Fowlie M. K., McGowan A. Kin discrimination in cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits. Proc Biol Sci. 2001 May 7;268(1470):885–890. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2001.1598. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lasker G. W. The hierarchical genetic structure of an urban town, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, examined by the coefficient of relationship by isonymy. J Biosoc Sci. 1999 Apr;31(2):279–284. doi: 10.1017/s0021932099002795. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rodríguez-Larralde Alvaro, Morales Jorge, Barrai Italo. Surname frequency and the isonymy structure of Venezuela. Am J Hum Biol. 2000 May;12(3):352–362. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6300(200005/06)12:3<352::AID-AJHB5>3.0.CO;2-S. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]