Project description
A comprehensive model of behavioural principles of cooperation
The emergence of critical problems, such as global warming and the pandemic, requires large scale cooperation. Are people prepared for this? Existing behavioural models of cooperation are insufficient to answer this question because they centre on one narrow aspect of people’s behaviour, while an integrated approach is necessary. The EU-funded PRINCIPLES project will develop and experimentally test a comprehensive model of behavioural principles of cooperation. The project will apply the model to systematically explore behavioural links between previously disjoint behavioural principles developed by social sciences and provide inclusive new behavioural analyses of the most significant models of social problems.
Objective
Global warming and Covid19 are two prime examples of problems that require cooperation at a very large scale. A failure to cooperate, that is, to act in one’s self-interest rather than the collective interest, could spell a bleak future for humanity. When are people prepared to play their part in the solution of these fundamental problems?
Current behavioural models of cooperation from across the social sciences, including economics, are inadequate for answering this fundamental question, because they typically focus on one narrow aspect of people’s behaviour, but people might be motivated by different factors at the same time. Hence, to make progress, an integrated approach is needed.
The major ambition of my interdisciplinary research programme is to achieve synergy by combining insights and methods from economics, sociology, and moral and social psychology into a novel experimentally tested framework thereby making a major step forward in the creation of a unified science of human cooperation.
Rule following is the most basic behaviour to achieve large-scale cooperation. I will use it as a first step to develop, and experimentally test a comprehensive model of behavioural principles of cooperation. Second, I will then employ the framework to systematically investigate behavioural links between previously disjointed behavioural principles as developed across the social sciences. I also use the model to provide comprehensive new behavioural analyses of the most important models of social dilemmas. Finally, I will use the new framework in representative samples from major economies around the globe to explain people’s behaviour in relevant large-scale cooperation problems, most importantly caring for the climate, by using incentivised experiments.
PRINCIPLES will equip researchers and policy makers across disciplines with behavioural principles, tools and data to study problems of cooperation using an interdisciplinary and experimentally tested framework.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
NG7 2RD Nottingham
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.