Michael Tomasello

intrinsic activity reward externalize undermine motivation

"In the case of an intrinsically rewarding activity, external rewards undermine this intrinsic motivation—they externalize it to the reward."

— Michael Tomasello

altruism trait human domain

"I do not believe that human altruism is a single trait, but rather that humans are more or less altruistic in different domains of activity, each of which has its own characteristics."

— Michael Tomasello

children learn lie cooperation trust

"Children soon learn to lie also, but that comes only some years later and presupposes preexisting cooperation and trust. If people did not have a tendency to trust one another’s helpfulness, lying could never get off the ground."

— Michael Tomasello

enforce norm altruism group transgressor

"Enforcing norms is an act of altruism, as the whole group benefits from my attempts to make the transgressor shape up."

— Michael Tomasello

imitation conformity intra-group conform heterogenity evolution

"Imitation and conformity can create high degrees of intra-group homogeneity and inter-group heterogeneity, and on a faster time scale than that of biological evolution."

— Michael Tomasello