biological nepotism
Here's
a neat study suggesting a possible mechanism for
kin recognition in humans:
A psychologist studying the degree to which people are prepared to put faith in total strangers has found that opponents in a game are more likely to be trusted if they share similar facial features, such as the shape of the mouth or width of the nose.
Razib here: To piggyback on Joel's post-after reading the article-I wonder, doesn't this have obvious racial implications? Races are
extended families, in fact, some groups like
Icelanders are pretty damn close genetically to the point of being second cousins I believe (multiple population bottlenecks). Liberals (and those of the environmentalist bent) that emphasize education to solve society's ills might be fighting more of an uphill battle than they think. Cultural explanations are pretty good at explaining why people have stereotypes of Jews (cheap) or blacks (violent) or Asians (bad drivers). This might be a case where biology has an amplifying effect on cultural tendencies seeded by statistically significant experiences.