Preliminary Study on Evolutionary Physiology as a

Deductive-Nomological Model of Corruption Behavior

Desh Raj SonyokNew Mexico State University

Las Cruces, NM

Outline

• Background• Motivation• Hypothesis• Evolutionary physiology• Analogy to corruption behavior• Summary/Conclusion• Reference

What is Corruptions?

Photo: Hamin Lee (http://www.canadianbusiness.com)

Defining Corruption

• No universal “one line” definition (Philps 1997)• Moralists vs Revisionists• Types: Public corruption and Private corruption• Classification (World Bank):

• Bribery• Nepotism• Clientelism• Embezzlement• Fraud• Extortion

Types of corruption in Nepal

• Corruption of budget: large scale, influence regional to national development activities. Involvement of politician, top level bureaucrats, contractor

• Corruption on revenue: involvement of low – high profile bureaucrats, business owner, tax payers

• Service related corruption: bribery in offices, public right is denied forcing them to pay money (bribe) in order to receive lawful service, receiving unlawful service by bribing officials

History of Corruption: Timeless Phenomenon• Adam, Eve and serpent (Bible: Genesis 3, verses 1 – 12)

• The Arthashastra by Kautilya (~2400 yrs ago)

• Corruption is as old as organized human life and as old as government itself (Klitgaard 1988)

• Corruption is a cross-temporal, crosss-ystemic and cross-cultural phenomenon. It can exist under any form of government, in any country or state, and at any time (Farrales 2005)

Motivation:

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CPI Rank of Nepal

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Nepal Corruption Perceptions Index (2013):Rank: 116/177 Score: 31/100

Note: 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean)

*Below 50 points indicate corrupted one

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Sri Lanka

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Bangladesh

Afghanistan

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Fitness: Workout, Food, and Metabolism

Research Hypothesis and Objectives• Corruption behavior resulting from need

base or perceived survival insecurity can be explained with an analogy of fat storage metabolism linked to evolutionary physiology

• Main purpose of this presentation is to offer some tentative suggestions on evolutionary aspects of human behavior/corruption behavior

Deductive Argument

Statement of Initial Conditions

Statement of Laws & Theories

Statement DescribingExplained Phenomena

Evolutionary Physiology: Organismal Performance Paradigm

Garland and Carter (1994)

Evolutionary Physiology

• "thrifty" genotypes (Neel 1962) • “feast–famine” conditions in the past 2.5 million years of human

paleolithic history• thrifty genes are genes which enable individuals to efficiently collect

and process food to deposit fat during periods of food abundance• advantageous for hunter-gatherer populations• detrimental in the modern world due food abundance

Evolutionarily Programmed Biochemical Cycles 

Figure: Mechanism of “thrifty gene” (Unger 2004)

Principle of fat loss

??? I eat only twice a day

I eat 3 - 6 small meals a day

• Higher eating frequency was associated with lower body weight (Kaisari et al 2013)

• Feed at regular intervals send a signal to the body that it doesn't have to store calories

Need Theorists' Point of View (Maslow, 1954)

PHYSIOLOGICALFood, water, shelter

SAFETYSecurity, Stability, Freedom

SOCIAL – BELONGING/LOVEFriends, family, Spouse, Lover

SELF - ESTEEM

SELF - ACTUALIZATION

Pursue inner talentCreativity fulfillment

Achievement, MasteryRecognition Respect

Psychoanalytic Perspective (Ogunleye, 2012)• Humans are driven by two biological instincts (Freud, 1933):

• Life instincts: relates with the motive to survive against all odds and the fulfillment of other bodily need

• Death instincts: a destructive force in all human beings

• Id, Ego and Superego

CPI vs GDP Per Capita

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Denmark

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New Zealand Norway

Saudi Arabia

GDP Per Capita ($)

CPI

3 or less: corrupt country

(Transparency Int’l 2008)

Corruption Behavior: Triggering Factor • Biologically human beings are built to be triggered into survival mode

• Insufficient/underpayment could be perceived as a survival risk

• Food availability, metabolism, and fat storage for future survival

• Due to uncertain future corrupt actors weigh benefits of corruption against its costs

Summary/Conclusions

• Human behavior is a complex product of social, psychological, and physiological interaction

• No previous study on effect of physiology on psychology relating to corruption behavior

• Evolutionary physiology specifically food availability and fat metabolism in human is analogous to corruption behavior in developing countries associated with underpayment and survival insecurity

Reference

• Crippen T (1992). “An evolutionary critique of cultural analysis in sociology.” Human Nature, Vol 3 (4), 379-412

• Garland, T., Jr. and Carter P. A. (1994). “Evolutionary physiology.” Annual Review of Physiology 56:579-621

• Goel, R. K., & Rich, D. P. (1989). On the economic incentives for taking bribes. Public Choice, 61(3), 269–275.

• Klitgaard, R (1988). Controlling Corruption. Berkeley: University of California Press

• Kuzawa CW (2010). “Beyond feast-famine: brain evolution, human life history and the metabolic syndrome”, In Evolutionary Anthropology, M Muehlenbein (ed), Cambridge University Press. pp. 518-527

• Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row

• Neel JV (1962). "Diabetes Mellitus: A "Thrifty" Genotype Rendered Detrimental by "Progress"?". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 14 (4): 353–62

• Ogunleye A.J. (2012). Corruption and Development in Nigeria A Psychological Perspective. Global Journal of Human Social Science Arts &Humanit, Vol 12(9)

• Philp, M (1997). “Defining Political Corruption.” In Heywood, Paul (ed.) 1997. Political Corruption. Oxford: Blackwell

Thank you