Practice question · Multiple choice
Vampire bats regurgitate blood for roost-mates who failed to feed, including unrelated ones. What has to be true of their lives for this to be stable rather than exploitable?
Hints
- A one-off exchange between strangers rewards defection. Ask what changes when the same pair meets next month.
- Reciprocal altruism has preconditions. Name the two the bats satisfy.
Show the answer
B. They must meet repeatedly and recognise individuals
Why
Repetition plus recognition is what makes generosity safe: a stable roost means today's donor is next month's beggar, and a persistent taker gets refused. Take either condition away and the system collapses, which is why reciprocal altruism is found in long-lived social species and almost nowhere else.
Practise Cooperation and Conflict
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on Cooperation and Conflict
- Select every statement that is TRUE about cooperation and conflict.
- In Axelrod's tournament, Tit-for-Tat never once scored more points than the strategy it was playing against.…
- A Tit-for-Tat player faces a partner who defects on round 1 but cooperates on round 2. Order what Tit-for-Tat…
- Sort each feature under the Hawk or the Dove strategy in the Hawk-Dove game.
- An all-Dove population is not evolutionarily stable, because a single Hawk introduced into it would win every…