Tag Archives: cooperation

On Cooperative Behavior in Distributed Teams

The Influence of Organizational Design, Media Richness, Social Interaction, and Interaction Adaptation. Self-interest vs. cooperation is a fundamental dilemma in animal behavior as well as in human and organizational behavior. In organizations, how to get people to cooperate despite or … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Cooperative Behavior | Tagged , | Comments Off on On Cooperative Behavior in Distributed Teams

Evolution of cooperation in stochastic games

Social dilemmas occur when incentives for individuals are misaligned with group interests1–7. According to the ‘tragedy of the commons’, these misalignments can lead to overexploitation and the collapse of public resources. The resulting behaviors can be analyzed with the tools of game theory8. The … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation | Tagged | Comments Off on Evolution of cooperation in stochastic games

Understanding the social dynamics that cause cooperation to thrive, or fail

Certain types of social networks can paradoxically lead to cooperation’s collapse. Biologists address the question of how an evolving social network influences the likelihood of cooperation in a theoretical social group. They find that, although networks, where connected individuals are closely … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Social cooperation | Tagged , | Comments Off on Understanding the social dynamics that cause cooperation to thrive, or fail

Can Empathy Promote Cooperation When Status and Money Matter?

‘Lower status’ people more likely to share wealth than ‘higher status’ people. When playing an economic game those that were assigned as ‘lower status’ were more likely to share their wealth than their ‘higher status’ counterparts, according to a new study. … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Empathy, Socio-economic status | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Can Empathy Promote Cooperation When Status and Money Matter?

Population Structure Promotes the Evolution of Intuitive Cooperation and Inhibits Deliberation

Spatial structure is one of the most studied mechanisms in evolutionary game theory. Here, we explore the consequences of spatial structure for a question which has received considerable empirical and theoretical attention in recent years, but has not yet been … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Population | Tagged , | Comments Off on Population Structure Promotes the Evolution of Intuitive Cooperation and Inhibits Deliberation

Cooperation emerges when groups are small and memories are long

The tragedy of the commons, a concept described by ecologist Garrett Hardin, paints a grim view of human nature. The theory goes that, if a resource is shared, individuals will act in their own self-interest, but against the interest of … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Groups | Tagged , | Comments Off on Cooperation emerges when groups are small and memories are long

To build a Cooperative Society, is it better to punish or reward?

One of the basic components of a functional, cooperative society is a code of law, where the laws are usually enforced by some kind of incentive. Social incentives can either be positive (rewards) or negative (punishments), and a society must … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Human cooperation, Social cooperation, Society | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on To build a Cooperative Society, is it better to punish or reward?

Why We Cooperate

Drop something in front of a two-year-old, and she’s likely to pick it up for you. This is not a learned behavior, psychologist Michael Tomasello argues. Through observations of young children in experiments he himself has designed, Tomasello shows that … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Evolution | Tagged , | Comments Off on Why We Cooperate

Camp stability predicts patterns of Hunter-gatherer Cooperation

Reciprocal food-sharing is more prevalent in stable hunter-gatherer camps, shows new UCL research that sheds light on the evolutionary roots of human cooperation. The research explores patterns of food-sharing among the Agta, a population of Filipino hunter-gatherers. It finds that … Continue reading

Posted in Cooperation, Hunter-gatherer | Tagged , | Comments Off on Camp stability predicts patterns of Hunter-gatherer Cooperation

Anthropology on Individualism or Altruism – Did natural selection favor individualists or altruists?

Christopher Boehm has been studying the interplay between the desires of an individual and that of the larger group for more than 40 years. He has conducted fieldwork with both human and nonhuman primates and has published more than 60 … Continue reading

Posted in Altruism, Anthropology, Cooperation, Hunter-gatherer, Individualism, Moral, Selfishness, Sharing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Anthropology on Individualism or Altruism – Did natural selection favor individualists or altruists?