Buchan, Nancy R., Grimalda, Gianluca, Wilson, Rick, Brewer, Marilynn, Fatas, Enrique and Foddy, Margaret (2009) Globalization and human cooperation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol.106 (No.11). pp. 4138-4142. doi:10.1073/pnas.0809522106 ISSN 0027-8424.

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Abstract

Globalization magnifies the problems that affect all people and that require large-scale human cooperation, for example, the overharvesting of natural resources and human-induced global warming. However, what does globalization imply for the cooperation needed to address such global social dilemmas? Two competing hypotheses are offered. One hypothesis is that globalization prompts reactionary movements that reinforce parochial distinctions among people. Large-scale cooperation then focuses on favoring one's own ethnic, racial, or language group. The alternative hypothesis suggests that globalization strengthens cosmopolitan attitudes by weakening the relevance of ethnicity, locality, or nationhood as sources of identification. In essence, globalization, the increasing interconnectedness of people worldwide, broadens the group boundaries within which individuals perceive they belong. We test these hypotheses by measuring globalization at both the country and individual levels and analyzing the relationship between globalization and individual cooperation with distal others in multilevel sequential cooperation experiments in which players can contribute to individual, local, and/or global accounts. Our samples were drawn from the general populations of the United States, Italy, Russia, Argentina, South Africa, and Iran. We find that as country and individual levels of globalization increase, so too does individual cooperation at the global level vis-a-vis the local level. In essence, "globalized'' individuals draw broader group boundaries than others, eschewing parochial motivations in favor of cosmopolitan ones. Globalization may thus be fundamental in shaping contemporary large-scale cooperation and may be a positive force toward the provision of global public goods.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation
Journal or Publication Title:	Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher:	National Academy of Sciences
ISSN:	0027-8424
Official Date:	17 March 2009
Dates:	Date Event 17 March 2009 Published
Volume:	Vol.106
Number:	No.11
Number of Pages:	5
Page Range:	pp. 4138-4142
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.0809522106
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), National Science Foundation, Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), Laboratory for Research in Experimental Economic (LINEEX), Spanish Ministry of Science and Education, Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Guanghua School of Management, Center for Research and Education in Economic Development (CIDED)
Grant number:	0652277, 0652310, SEJ2007-66581, ECO2008-04784

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