Prosocial Reputation and Stress Among Contemporary Hunter-gatherers: the Hadza Case

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2024 Sep 13

PMID 39271949

Authors

Piotr Fedurek

Athena Aktipis

Lee Cronk

Dariusz Danel

Laurent Lacroix

Julia Lehmann

Ibrahim Mabulla

Jerryson E Makambi

J Colette Berbesque

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

It has been suggested that having a reputation for being prosocial is a critical part of social status across all human societies. It has also been argued that prosocial behavior confers benefits, whether physiological, such as stress reduction, or social, such as building allies or becoming more popular. Here, we investigate the relationship between helping reputation (being named as someone others would go to for help), and hair-derived chronic stress (hair cortisol concentration). In a sample of 77 women and 62 men, we found that perceived helping reputation was not related to chronic stress. Overall, the results of our study suggest that, in an egalitarian society with fluid camp membership and widely practiced generosity such as the Hadza, helping reputation does not necessarily boost stress-related health benefits through prestige-signaling mechanisms observed in hierarchical, large-scale societies.

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