Data simulations of Burkart et al. 2014_The evolutionary origin of human hyper-cooperation

Burkart et al. conducted phylogenetic regression analyses to investigate the evolutionary drivers of proactive prosociality. They tested 24 groups of 15 primate species, including humans, in a group-service paradigm, which provided the option to any member in the group to deliver a valuable food resource to group members – the provider could not benefit themselves. Within the sample, 4 species were assayed with several groups (range groups: 2-5) and <strong>11 species were assayed with only 1 group</strong>. In their primary regression analyses, the authors averaged prosociality scores across groups (within species) and ran a series of models from which they selected the best fitting one by means of AICc criteria. <strong>Question</strong>: if the authors had sampled multiple groups for each species, would the result and associated inferences about the evolutionary origins of human cooperation be the same?