6533b7dbfe1ef96bd126ff96
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Assortment, but not knowledge of assortment, affects cooperation and individual success in human groups
Lucas MollemanFranz J. WeissingMikael PuurtinenJaakko JunikkaPieter Van Den Bergsubject
genetic structuresEconomicslcsh:MedicineSocial Sciences050109 social psychologyPREFERENCESOTHERSCollective actionevoluutiopsykologiaAltruismryhmäkäyttäytyminenCognitionMathematical and Statistical TechniquesBELIEFSPsychologyALTRUISM050207 economicsCooperative Behaviorlcsh:Scienceta515media_commonEvolutionary TheoryMultidisciplinaryApplied Mathematics05 social sciences16. Peace & justiceyhteistyökykygroup behaviourPhysical SciencesRegression AnalysisEngineering and TechnologyPsychologySocial psychologyStatistics (Mathematics)Research Articleevolutionary psychologyExperimental Economicscooperation (general)media_common.quotation_subjectDecision MakingMaterials ScienceGAMEPublic Goods GameLinear Regression AnalysisFuelsResearch and Analysis MethodsINDIRECT RECIPROCITYyhteistyöGame Theory0502 economics and businessHumans0501 psychology and cognitive sciencesStatistical MethodsAssociation (psychology)Materials by AttributeBehaviorEvolutionary BiologyPUBLIC-GOODS EXPERIMENTSlcsh:RCooperativenessCognitive PsychologyBiology and Life SciencesModels TheoreticalEVOLUTIONEnergy and Powerability to cooperateCollective Human BehaviorCognitive Scienceta1181lcsh:QCooperative behaviorMathematicsNeurosciencedescription
The success or failure of human collective action often depends on the cooperation tendencies of individuals in groups, and on the information that individuals have about each other's cooperativeness. However, it is unclear whether these two factors have an interactive effect on cooperation dynamics. Using a decision-making experiment, we confirm that groups comprising individuals with higher cooperation tendencies cooperate at a higher level than groups comprising individuals with low cooperation tendencies. Moreover, assorting individuals with similar cooperation tendency together affected behaviour so that the most cooperative individuals tended to cooperate more and the least cooperative individuals cooperated less, compared to their behaviour in randomly formed groups. In line with predictions of evolutionary models of cooperation, there was a strong positive association between individuals' cooperation tendency and success when groups were formed assortatively, whereas such association did not exist when groups were formed randomly. Surprisingly, information about group members' cooperativeness in assorted groups had no effect on cooperation levels. We discuss potential explanations for why information about cooperativeness of others may be disregarded in certain circumstances. ispartof: PLoS One vol:12 issue:10 ispartof: location:United States status: published
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-10-02 | PLoS ONE |