Examining reputation from a life history perspective

abstract: An individual’s reputation can be beneficial or detrimental to their exchanges with others, and these exchanges may be critical for achieving evolutionary goals, such as reproduction. Depending on their reputation, an individual may or may not gain access to resources in order to achieve their evolutionary goals. Reputation is typically described as being “positive” and “negative,” but the current study aimed to identify potential nuances to reputations beyond the traditional dichotomy. It was hypothesized that different types of reputations (such as “friendly”, “dishonest”, and “aggressive”) would group together in categories beyond “positive” and “negative.” Additionally, individuals with different life history strategies might find different reputations important, because the reputations they find most important may help them get the kinds of resources they need to attain their specific evolutionary goals. Therefore, it was also predicted that the importance individuals place on different types of reputations would vary as a function of life history strategy. Exploratory factor analysis identified a five factor structure for reputations. Individuals also placed varying levels of importance on different types of reputations, and found some reputations more important than others depending on their life history strategy. This study demonstrates that reputational information is more nuanced than previously thought and future research should consider that there may be more than just “positive” and “negative” reputations in social interactions