Why do we struggle to learn to cooperate with each other

What is it about?

Participants were tasked with harvesting from a vulnerable but replenishing resource with three other partners. Unbeknownst to the participants, the three partners copied the participant’s harvesting behavior. Since the other partners copied the participant, each participant was essentially tasked with managing a resource with copies of themselves. The best strategy for each participant was to cooperate and sustain the resource. Participants played three consecutive games to see if they could learn to cooperate with themselves by the third game. However, even after several opportunities to learn, less than 10% of people learned to cooperate with themselves to sustain the resource. This work demonstrates that, even if we could remove other bad actors from the world, most of us would struggle to learn to cooperate with ourselves, let alone others.

Featured Image

Photo by Bhautik Patel on Unsplash

Photo by Bhautik Patel on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Every day our lives are affected by whether we cooperate with each other. From whether we jump a queue, to whether we work together to prevent climate change, our lives are inexorably tied to how we treat each other. When we look at society’s failures, it is easy to blame others – how can we make the world a better place when so many refuse to help? But, it turns out that even if we could change the world so that everyone behaved exactly like us, most of us would struggle to cooperate.

Perspectives