Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40737417›Full record

ArticleScience advances2025

Indirect genetic effects among neighbors promote cooperation and accelerate adaptation in a small-scale human society.

Jordan S Martin, Bret Beheim, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C Trumble, Paul Hooper, Dan Cummings, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Adrian V Jaeggi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
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0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Jordan S MartinHuman Ecology Group, Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-8704-6076
Bret BeheimDepartment for Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-4653-3155
Michael GurvenDepartment of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-5661-527X
Hillard KaplanEconomic Sciences Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-7398-7358
Jonathan StieglitzInstitute of Advanced Study Toulouse, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France.ORCID 0000-0001-5985-9643
Benjamin C TrumbleSchool for Human Evolution and Social Change and Center for Evolution and Medicine, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3201-0628
Paul HooperDepartment of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4673-7513
Dan CummingsEconomic Sciences Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7370-3020
Daniel Eid RodriguezFaculty of Medicine, Universidad Mayor de San Simon, Cochabamba, Bolivia.ORCID 0000-0001-8145-0967
Adrian V JaeggiHuman Ecology Group, Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0003-1695-0388

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Explaining the rapid evolution of human cooperation and its role in our species' biodemographic success remains a major evolutionary puzzle. To address this challenge, we tested a social drive hypothesis, which predicts that social plasticity and social selection in human groups cause indirect genetic effects that accelerate the adaptation of fitness, promoting population growth via feedback between the environmental causes and evolutionary consequences of cooperation. Using Bayesian multilevel models to analyze fertility data from a small-scale society, we demonstrate that density- and frequency-dependent indirect genetic effects on fitness promote the evolution of cooperation among neighboring women, increasing the rate of contemporary adaptation by ~5×. Our results show how interactions between the genetic and socioecological processes shaping cooperation in reproduction can drive rapid growth and social evolution in human populations.

Indexed as

Adaptation, PhysiologicalCooperative BehaviorBayes TheoremFemaleHumansSocial Evolution

Identifiers

PMID40737417
PMCPMC12309698

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.