Dan Sperber & Nicolas Baumard (2012) Moral reputation: An evolutionary and cognitive perspective. Mind & Language 27(5), 485-518.

Abstract: From an evolutionary point of view, the function of moral behaviour may be to secure a good reputation as a co-operator.  The best way to do so may be to obey genuine moral motivations. Still, one’s moral reputation maybe something too important to be entrusted just to one’s moral sense. A robust concern for one’s reputation is likely to have evolved too. Here we explore some of the complex relationships between morality and reputation both from an evolutionary and a cognitive point of view.

Dan Sperber & Hugo Mercier (2012) Reasoning as a social competence. In H. Landemore & J. Elster (eds.), Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms (Cambridge University Press), 368-392.

“…We argue that the function of reasoning is primarily social and that it is the individual benefits that are side-effects. The function of reasoning is to produce arguments in order to convince others and to evaluate arguments others use in order to convince us. We will show how this view of reasoning as a form of social competence correctly predicts both good and bad performance in the individual and in the collective case, and helps explain a variety of psychological and sociological phenomena…”