Our mental architecture consists of inference systems

An important part of our mental architecture consists of inference systems that deal with social interaction.

 For instance, human beings are very good at:

 • monitoring social exchange, that is, finding out who is cooperating with whom, and under what circumstances, as well as punishing cheaters and avoiding people who fail to punish cheaters;

 • Keeping track of other people’s personality, especially in terms of reliability, on the basis of indirect but emotionally charged cues;

 • building and maintaining social hierarchies, based either directly on resources or on indirect, seemingly arbitrary criteria for dominance;

• building coalitions, that is, stable cooperation networks where benefits are shared, the cost of others defecting is high, and measures are taken to preempt it;

• gossiping, that is, taking pleasure at receiving or imparting information on adaptively significant domains (sex, resources, hierarchy), about and with other members of one’s social network;