On the evolution of individualistic preferences: An incomplete informationscenario

We study the evolution of preferences via payoff monotonic dynamics in stra tegic environments with and without complete information. It is known that, with complete information and subgroup matching, empirically plausible int erdependent preference relations may entail the local instability of indivi dualistic preferences (which target directly the maximization of material p ayoffs,fitness). In contrast, under incomplete information (unobservability of preference types). M e show that independent preferences are globally s table in a large set of environments and locally stable in essentially any standard environment, provided that the number of subgroups that form in th e society is large. Since these results are obtained within the context of a very general model. they may be thought of as providing an evolutionary r ationals for the prevalence of individualistic preferences. (C) 2001 Academ ic Press.