fulltext - DiVA Portal

On Indirect Reciprocity- Between Reciprocity and Altruismby Jan TullbergAbstractIndirect reciprocity, defined as acts where the return for a favorcomes from someone other than the recipient of the benefaction, is acommon phenomenon in hllman societies. However, it is a poorlyanalyzed phenomenon with respect to payoffs. Are the expectationsof return realistic or not; are they pro social attitudes or illusionsinduced through manipulation? I recognize four categories of indirectreciprocity, two of which pertain to interaction among individuals,and two of which involve social systems. The conclusion is that twoof these categories, reciprocal reputation and institutionalizedreciprocity, are strongly linked to reciprocity, whereas the other twocategories, generous reputation and metaphysical reciprocity, arelikely to involve a high degree of altruism. I discuss the relationshipbetween altruism and reciprocity and its relevance to normativeethics and argue for a strict separation between them instead of agray zone. On the descriptive level the article argues against thestrong tendency in biology to dissolve altruism. Normatively thearticle argues against the dominant position in philosophy thataltruistic norms and acts are desired.I : 1