Abstract
Four studies were conducted to investigate evolutionary predictions about the effect of relatedness of target persons on interpersonal attitudes. The first study (N = 65 students) showed that Machiavellianism was lower in relation to family members than to people in general. The second study (N = 86), in which a new Helping Attitudes questionnaire was used and validated, indicated that helpfulness was greater for family members than towards people in general or strangers. In the third study (N = 72 women) social attitudes were just as favorable to close friends as to family members. In the fourth study (N = 100 women) helpfulness was strongly predicted by relatedness of social targets but Machiavellianism was not. Results are discussed in terms of kin-selection theory in the context of an evolutionary past in which people interacted in small, closely related groups.
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