Descent Systems, Paternity Uncertainty and Cousin-directed Altruism

Jeon and Buss (2007) found that human altruistic tendencies towards different categories ofcousins are adaptively regulated as a consequence of paternity uncertainty. Since the study sample was drawnfrom a large US city where the effects of patrilineality may be week, the question of whether descent systemsalso independently affect cousin-directed altruism remained unanswered. We replicated the cousin-directedaltruism study in a population of urban Korean college students, who have lived in a highly patrilineal society.As predicted, mother’s sister’s children were favored the most, followed by both mother’s brother’s and father’ssister’s children. Contrary to our predictions, however, father’s brother’s children was more, not less, favored thaneither mother’s brother’s or father’s sister’s children. We discuss why this cross-cultural difference may beobserved with regard to the highly patrilineal culture in Korea.