Steve wrote:
> How do you know this is altruism and just not an example of
> "co-operation" resulting from the long run pay off from this
> "altruism" exceeding the short run payoff from the act of eating the
> cleaner fish?
It is. Which is why it's called reciprocal altruism, and not
unconditional altruism.
Why call this behavior altruistic at all? I can think of two possible
answers: 1) it has the prime facia appearance of it, and 2) there is
always a chance the act will not be repaid. In the terms of the
Prisoner's Dilemma, that the giver will get the Sucker's Pay-Off. The
giver is risking her life for the benefit of another, and their is risk,
she will receive nothing for it.
> The same type of outcome is illustrated with the
> Prisoners Dilemma with repeated rounds of play. That is while the
> initial formulation of the problem is adversarial the long run payoffs
> larger value relative to the short run payoff overcomes the
> adversarial relationship creating the impression of altruism.
Yes, exactly.
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