Research sheds new light on human cooperation
New research has shed light on the way in which people cooperate for the common good, and what happens when they fail to. Writing in the journal Science, the researchers found that taking revenge is more common in undemocratic traditional societies based on authoritarian and parochial social institutions where citizens think it is acceptable to dodge taxes or flout laws because these criminal acts frequently go unpunished. The international study of 16 countries looked at the extent to which some people will sacrifice personal gain to benefit the wider public, while 'freeloaders' try to take advantage of their generosity. In earlier work, scientists devised a financial game in which participants had to decide whether to commit their resources - tokens - to a common pot or hold back and reap the benefits of the others' community spirit. Cooperation rapidly foundered without a financial punishment for participants who did not make public-spirited investments, but continued to exploit the generous nature of others. Based on this game, Professor Simon Gaechter and Dr Benedikt Herrmann at the University of Nottingham, and Dr Christian Thoni at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland, studied the behaviour of people in 16 cities around the world, from Boston, Bonn and Riyadh to Minsk, Nottingham, Seoul and others. 'To our knowledge this is the largest cross-cultural study of experimental games that has been carried out in the developed world,' Prof Gaechter said. Levels of cooperation were remarkably similar across all 16 cities, they found. However, against the predictions of economists, behaviour changed dramatically when everyone's contributions were revealed, and players were given the ability to punish other players by taking tokens away. As previous studies have shown, players were willing to part with a token of their own in order to punish the low investors or the freeloaders who had exploited others. But striking national differences then arose when freeloaders were punished for putting their own interests ahead of the common good. In countries such as the US, Switzerland and the UK, the freeloaders accepted their punishment, became much more cooperative and the earnings in the game increased over time. However, in countries such as Greece and Russia, the freeloaders sought retribution - exerting revenge on those who had punished them - even the model citizens who had paid their way. Cooperation for the common good then plummeted as a result. In societies where the modern ethic of cooperation with strangers is less familiar and the rule of law is perceived to be weak, revenge is more common and cooperation suffers, commented Dr Herrmann. What is fascinating about the behaviour in the games is that they parallel measures of norms of civic cooperation and rule of law made by social scientists, said Dr Herrmann. These norms cover general attitudes to the law, for example whether or not citizens think it is acceptable to dodge taxes or flout laws. 'In societies where public co-operation is ingrained and people trust their law enforcement institutions, revenge is generally shunned,' explained Dr Herrmann. 'But in societies where the modern ethic of co-operation with unrelated strangers is less familiar and the rule of law is weak, revenge is more common.' Economists are keen to understand the decision-making processes behind co-operation, as working together for the common good is seen as crucial for progress in any society - not least for effectively addressing big issues such as recycling and tackling climate change. According to Dr Hermann; 'there are numerous examples in everyday life of situations where co-operation is the best option but there are incentives to take a free ride, such as recycling, neighbourhood watch, voting, maintaining the local environment, tackling climate change, and so on. We need to understand why people behave in this way because co-operation is very strongly inhibited in the presence of anti-social punishment.'