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The restart effect in social dilemmas shows humans are self-interested not altruistic. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2210082119. [PMID: 36459646 PMCID: PMC9894210 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2210082119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Do economic games show evidence of altruistic or self-interested motivations in humans? A huge body of empirical work has found contrasting results. While many participants routinely make costly decisions that benefit strangers, consistent with the hypothesis that humans exhibit a biologically novel form of altruism (or "prosociality"), many participants also typically learn to pay fewer costs with experience, consistent with self-interested individuals adapting to an unfamiliar environment. Key to resolving this debate is explaining the famous "restart effect," a puzzling enigma whereby failing cooperation in public goods games can be briefly rescued by a surprise restart. Here we replicate this canonical result, often taken as evidence of uniquely human altruism, and show that it 1) disappears when cooperation is invisible, meaning individuals can no longer affect the behavior of their groupmates, consistent with strategically motivated, self-interested, cooperation; and 2) still occurs even when individuals are knowingly grouped with computer players programmed to replicate human decisions, consistent with confusion. These results show that the restart effect can be explained by a mixture of self-interest and irrational beliefs about the game's payoffs, and not altruism. Consequently, our results suggest that public goods games have often been measuring self-interested but confused behaviors and reject the idea that conventional theories of evolution cannot explain the results of economic games.
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2
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Burton-Chellew MN, Guérin C. Self-interested learning is more important than fair-minded conditional cooperation in public-goods games. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2022; 4:e46. [PMID: 37588915 PMCID: PMC10426038 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2022.45] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022] Open
Abstract
Why does human cooperation often unravel in economic experiments despite a promising start? Previous studies have interpreted the decline as the reaction of disappointed altruists retaliating in response to non-altruists (Conditional Cooperators hypothesis). This interpretation has been considered evidence of a uniquely human form of cooperation, motivated by an altruistic concern for equality ('fairness') and requiring special evolutionary explanations. However, experiments have typically shown individuals not only information about the decisions of their groupmates (social information) but also information about their own payoffs. Showing both confounds explanations based on conditional cooperation with explanations based on confused individuals learning how to better play the game (Confused Learners hypothesis). Here we experimentally decouple these two forms of information, and thus these two hypotheses, in a repeated public-goods game. Analysing 616 Swiss university participants, we find that payoff information leads to a greater decline, supporting the Confused Learners hypothesis. In contrast, social information has a small or negligible effect, contradicting the Conditional Cooperators hypothesis. We also find widespread evidence of both confusion and selfish motives, suggesting that human cooperation is maybe not so unique after all.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew
- Department of Economics, HEC-University of Lausanne, 1015Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Claire Guérin
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, 1015Lausanne, Switzerland
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3
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Cooperation and cognition in wild canids. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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4
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McCauley TG, McCullough ME. Retrospective Self-Reported Childhood Experiences in Enriched Environments Uniquely Predict Prosocial Behavior and Personality Traits in Adulthood. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 20:14747049221110603. [PMID: 35791506 PMCID: PMC10303491 DOI: 10.1177/14747049221110603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 08/19/2023] Open
Abstract
What features of people's childhood environments go on to shape their prosocial behavior during adulthood? Past studies linking childhood environment to adult prosocial behavior have focused primarily on adverse features, thereby neglecting the possible influence of exposure to enriched environments (e.g., access to material resources, experiences with rich cooperative relationships, and interactions with morally exemplary role models). Here, we expand the investigation of childhood environmental quality to include consideration of enriching childhood experiences and their relation to adult prosociality. In two cross-sectional studies, we found promising evidence that enriched childhood environments are associated with adult moral behavior. In study 1 (N = 1,084 MTurk workers), we adapted an existing measure of enriched childhood environmental quality for retrospective recall of childhood experiences and found that subjects' recollections of their enriched childhood experiences are distinct from their recollections of adverse childhood experiences. In Study 2 (N = 2,208 MTurk workers), we found that a formative composite of subjects' recollections of enriched childhood experiences is positively associated with a variety of morally relevant traits in adulthood, including agreeableness, honesty-humility, altruism, endorsement of the principle of care, empathic responding to the plights of needy others, and charitable donations in an experimental setting, and that these associations held after controlling for childhood environmental adversity, childhood socioeconomic status, sex, and age. We also found evidence suggesting that some, but not all, of the relationship between enrichment and adult prosociality can be explained by a shared genetic correlation. We include a new seven-item measure as an appendix.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G. McCauley
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of
Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
| | - Michael E. McCullough
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of
Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
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5
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Burton-Chellew MN, D'Amico V. A preference to learn from successful rather than common behaviours in human social dilemmas. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20211590. [PMID: 34933600 PMCID: PMC8692956 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2021] [Accepted: 11/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Human cooperation is often claimed to be special and requiring explanations based on gene-culture coevolution favouring a desire to copy common social behaviours. If this is true, then individuals should be motivated to both observe and copy common social behaviours. Previous economic experiments, using the public goods game, have suggested individuals' desire to sacrifice for the common good and to copy common social behaviours. However, previous experiments have often not shown examples of success. Here we test, on 489 participants, whether individuals are more motivated to learn about, and more likely to copy, either common or successful behaviours. Using the same social dilemma and standard instructions, we find that individuals were primarily motivated to learn from successful rather than common behaviours. Consequently, social learning disfavoured costly cooperation, even when individuals could observe a stable, pro-social level of cooperation. Our results call into question explanations for human cooperation based on cultural evolution and/or a desire to conform with common social behaviours. Instead, our results indicate that participants were motivated by personal gain, but initially confused, despite receiving standard instructions. When individuals could learn from success, they learned to cooperate less, suggesting that human cooperation is maybe not so special after all.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew
- Department of Economics, HEC-University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Victoire D'Amico
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
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6
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Social Learning Strategies and Cooperative Behaviour: Evidence of Payoff Bias, but Not Prestige or Conformity, in a Social Dilemma Game. GAMES 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/g12040089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Human cooperation, occurring without reciprocation and between unrelated individuals in large populations, represents an evolutionary puzzle. One potential explanation is that cooperative behaviour may be transmitted between individuals via social learning. Using an online social dilemma experiment, we find evidence that participants’ contributions were more consistent with payoff-biased transmission than prestige-biased transmission or conformity. We also found some evidence for lower cooperation (i) when exposed to social information about peer cooperation levels than without such information, and (ii) in the prisoners’ dilemma game compared to the snowdrift game. A simulation model established that the observed cooperation was more likely to be caused by participants’ general propensity to cooperate than by the effect of social learning strategies employed within the experiment, but that this cooperative propensity could be reduced through selection. Overall, our results support previous experimental evidence indicating the role of payoff-biased transmission in explaining cooperative behaviour, but we find that this effect was small and was overwhelmed by participants’ general propensity for cooperation.
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7
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Powers ST, van Schaik CP, Lehmann L. Cooperation in large-scale human societies-What, if anything, makes it unique, and how did it evolve? Evol Anthropol 2021; 30:280-293. [PMID: 34085349 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2020] [Revised: 10/07/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
To resolve the major controversy about why prosocial behaviors persist in large-scale human societies, we propose that two questions need to be answered. First, how do social interactions in small-scale and large-scale societies differ? By reviewing the exchange and collective-action dilemmas in both small-scale and large-scale societies, we show they are not different. Second, are individual decision-making mechanisms driven by self-interest? We extract from the literature three types of individual decision-making mechanism, which differ in their social influence and sensitivity to self-interest, to conclude that humans interacting with non-relatives are largely driven by self-interest. We then ask: what was the key mechanism that allowed prosocial behaviors to continue as societies grew? We show the key role played by new social interaction mechanisms-change in the rules of exchange and collective-action dilemmas-devised by the interacting individuals, which allow for self-interested individuals to remain prosocial as societies grow.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon T Powers
- School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
| | | | - Laurent Lehmann
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
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8
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West SA, Cooper GA, Ghoul MB, Griffin AS. Ten recent insights for our understanding of cooperation. Nat Ecol Evol 2021; 5:419-430. [PMID: 33510431 PMCID: PMC7612052 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-020-01384-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Accepted: 12/11/2020] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Since Hamilton published his seminal papers in 1964, our understanding of the importance of cooperation for life on Earth has evolved beyond recognition. Early research was focused on altruism in the social insects, where the problem of cooperation was easy to see. In more recent years, research into cooperation has expanded across the entire tree of life, and has been revolutionized by advances in genetic, microbiological and analytical techniques. We highlight ten insights that have arisen from these advances, which have illuminated generalizations across different taxa, making the world simpler to explain. Furthermore, progress in these areas has opened up numerous new problems to solve, suggesting exciting directions for future research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stuart A West
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Guy A Cooper
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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Truskanov N, Emery Y, Bshary R. Juvenile cleaner fish can socially learn the consequences of cheating. Nat Commun 2020; 11:1159. [PMID: 32127522 PMCID: PMC7054547 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14712-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Social learning is often proposed as an important driver of the evolution of human cooperation. In this view, cooperation in other species might be restricted because it mostly relies on individually learned or innate behaviours. Here, we show that juvenile cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus) can learn socially about cheating consequences in an experimental paradigm that mimics cleaners' cooperative interactions with client fish. Juvenile cleaners that had observed adults interacting with model clients learned to (1) behave more cooperatively after observing clients fleeing in response to cheating; (2) prefer clients that were tolerant to cheating; but (3) did not copy adults' arbitrary feeding preferences. These results confirm that social learning can play an active role in the development of cooperative strategies in a non-human animal. They further show that negative responses to cheating can potentially shape the reputation of cheated individuals, influencing cooperation dynamics in interaction networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noa Truskanov
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
| | - Yasmin Emery
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Redouan Bshary
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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10
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Smith D. Cultural group selection and human cooperation: a conceptual and empirical review. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e2. [PMID: 37588374 PMCID: PMC10427285 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural group selection has been proposed as an explanation for humans' highly cooperative nature. This theory argues that social learning mechanisms, combined with rewards and punishment, can stabilise any group behaviour, cooperative or not. Equilibrium selection can then operate, resulting in cooperative groups outcompeting less-cooperative groups. This process may explain the widespread cooperation between non-kin observed in humans, which is sometimes claimed to be altruistic. This review explores the assumptions of cultural group selection to assess whether it provides a convincing explanation for human cooperation. Although competition between cultural groups certainly occurs, it is unclear whether this process depends on specific social learning mechanisms (e.g. conformism) or a norm psychology (to indiscriminately punish norm-violators) to stabilise groups at different equilibria as proposed by existing cultural group selection models. Rather than unquestioningly adopt group norms and institutions, individuals and groups appear to evaluate, design and shape them for self-interested reasons (where possible). As individual fitness is frequently tied to group fitness, this often coincides with constructing group-beneficial norms and institutions, especially when groups are in conflict. While culture is a vital component underlying our species' success, the extent to which current conceptions of cultural group selection reflect human cooperative evolution remains unclear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Smith
- Bristol Medical School, Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol, BristolBS8 2BN, UK
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11
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Shuler RL. Wealth-relative effects in cooperation games. Heliyon 2019; 5:e02958. [PMID: 31872125 PMCID: PMC6909069 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02958] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2018] [Revised: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 11/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/02/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper investigates cooperation games in which poor agents do not benefit from cooperation with wealthy agents. They instead benefit from considering wealth relative to decision payoffs of fitness or wealth. Of concern is the effect of cooperation on participants, their rational self-interest and choices, and not the evolution of cooperation directly. The accumulation of fitness or wealth has been shown in the literature to lead to different optimal strategies for wealthy and poor players in Chicken games. The effect could have important explanatory power if it were more broadly applicable. First we empirically compare two published results, one involving the temptation parameter vs. degree of cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemma, and the other a surprising result from a public goods game with participants from different cultures, networks and wealth in which a fixed rather than relative payoff scheme was used. Using the temptation data to calibrate the public goods behavior suggests wealth factors can provide an explanation for the results. Second we show using simulation that adding a survival threshold to a wealth or fitness accumulating Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma produces a wealth relative effect. We clarify previous results to show the poor must avoid survival risk, regardless of whether this is associated with cooperation or defection. We do this by introducing the Farmer's Game, a simulation of Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma with wealth accumulation and a survival threshold. This is used to evaluate the Tit-for-Tat strategy and four variants. Equilibrium payoffs keep the game scaled to social relevance, with a fraction of all payoffs externalized as a turn cost parameter. Findings include poor performance of Tit-for-Tat near the survival threshold, superior performance of low risk strategies for both poor and wealthy players, dependence of survival of the poor near the threshold on Tit-for-Tat forgiveness, unexpected optimization of forgiveness without encountering a social dilemma, improved performance of a diverse mix of strategies, and a more abrupt threshold of social catastrophe for the better performing mix. Lastly we compare cooperating and non-cooperating societies using the simulation and discover disturbing connections between cooperation and familiar non-egalitarian wealth distribution patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert L Shuler
- NASA Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, TX, 77058, USA
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12
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People prefer coordinated punishment in cooperative interactions. Nat Hum Behav 2019; 3:1145-1153. [DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0707-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2018] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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13
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McAuliffe WHB, Burton-Chellew MN, McCullough ME. Cooperation and Learning in Unfamiliar Situations. CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1177/0963721419848673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Human social life is rife with uncertainty. In any given encounter, one can wonder whether cooperation will generate future benefits. Many people appear to resolve this dilemma by initially cooperating, perhaps because (a) encounters in everyday life often have future consequences, and (b) the costs of alienating oneself from long-term social partners often outweighed the short-term benefits of acting selfishly over our evolutionary history. However, because cooperating with other people does not always advance self-interest, people might also learn to withhold cooperation in certain situations. Here, we review evidence for two ideas: that people (a) initially cooperate or not depending on the incentives that are typically available in their daily lives and (b) also learn through experience to adjust their cooperation on the basis of the incentives of unfamiliar situations. We compare these claims with the widespread view that anonymously helping strangers in laboratory settings is motivated by altruistic desires. We conclude that the evidence is more consistent with the idea that people stop cooperating in unfamiliar situations because they learn that it does not help them, either financially or through social approval.
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Affiliation(s)
- William H. B. McAuliffe
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami
- Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School
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14
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Abstract
Although the concept of culture was severely criticized in the second half of the twentieth century, its explanatory use has not been abandoned. Evolutionary psychologists and cognitive scientists have more recently used the concept in models and theories of culture. This use renews the hope that the concept of culture can be explanatorily useful within the social sciences, especially since the new definition of culture connects with both the idea of evolution and with the other natural sciences. In this paper, I analyze the models of cultural evolution developed by Cultural Evolutionary Science (CES), more specifically gene-culture coevolution theoretical models and dual-inheritance theories. I argue that even if CES scholars mostly claim that for them, culture is equal to information, some of these models have aspirations to bring back cultures as discrete units that resemble the social anthropological models of culture that have been already abandoned. I discuss evolutionists’ and social anthropologists’ objections to these models. I claim that despite the popularity of cultural evolutionist theories, social scientists (cultural anthropologists and historians, for example) should remain skeptical about the possibility that this approach can assume an explanatory role for a concept of culture.
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15
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Powers ST, Ekárt A, Lewis PR. Modelling enduring institutions: The complementarity of evolutionary and agent-based approaches. COGN SYST RES 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2018.04.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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16
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Burton-Chellew MN, El Mouden C, West SA. Evidence for strategic cooperation in humans. Proc Biol Sci 2017; 284:20170689. [PMID: 28592673 PMCID: PMC5474078 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.0689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2017] [Accepted: 05/05/2017] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans may cooperate strategically, cooperating at higher levels than expected from their short-term interests, to try and stimulate others to cooperate. To test this hypothesis, we experimentally manipulated the extent an individual's behaviour is known to others, and hence whether or not strategic cooperation is possible. In contrast with many previous studies, we avoided confounding factors by preventing individuals from learning during the game about either pay-offs or about how other individuals behave. We found clear evidence for strategic cooperators-just telling some individuals that their groupmates would be informed about their behaviour led to them tripling their initial level of cooperation, from 17 to 50%. We also found that many individuals play as if they do not understand the game, and their presence obscures the detection of strategic cooperation. Identifying such players allowed us to detect and study strategic motives for cooperation in novel, more powerful, ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxwell N Burton-Chellew
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PS, UK
- Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, Oxford OX1 4AU, UK
| | - Claire El Mouden
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PS, UK
| | - Stuart A West
- Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PS, UK
- Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, Oxford OX1 4AU, UK
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