Helping numerous people could boost your social standing

Helping a larger number of people helps you build a more positive reputation than helping a few people many times, a University of Missouri anthropologist has claimed.

Shane Macfarlan, post-doctoral anthropology researcher in MU's College of Arts and Science, said good reputations are good business.

He said that beyond the realm of commerce, the power of a positive reputation could influence the evolution of language and cooperation in our species.

In his research, he studied the work habits and reputations of men in a remote village on the Caribbean island of Dominica; the isolation of the village reduced outside influences on reputation and allowed the study to focus solely on the effects of specific behaviours on social standing.

On the island of Dominica, the men were all involved in the production of bay oil, a tree leaf extract used to make cosmetics by companies such as Burt's Bees.

Macfarlan explained that helping numerous other men led to individuals achieving higher regard among their peers.

However, he said that men, who helped smaller number of people, ended up with a worse reputation, although both men performed a similar total number of helping acts.

Moreover, men with best reputations got greater amount of assistance from a larger number of people when they needed it most, whether it was in agricultural production or assistance after disasters, like hurricanes.

The study has been published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.