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How is human cooperation different?
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Melis, Alicia P. and Semmann, D. (2010) How is human cooperation different? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Volume 365 (Number 1553). pp. 2663-2674. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0157 ISSN 0962-8436.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0157
Abstract
Although cooperation is a widespread phenomenon in nature, human cooperation exceeds that of all other species with regard to the scale and range of cooperative activities. Here we review and discuss differences between humans and non-humans in the strategies employed to maintain cooperation and control free-riders. We distinguish forms of cooperative behaviour based on their influence on the immediate payoffs of actor and recipient. If the actor has immediate costs and only the recipient obtains immediate benefits, we term this investment. If the behaviour has immediate positive effects for both actor and recipient, we call this a self-serving mutually beneficial behaviour or mutual cooperation. We argue that humans, in contrast to all other species, employ a wider range of enforcement mechanisms, which allow higher levels of cooperation to evolve and stabilize among unrelated individuals and in large groups. We also discuss proximate mechanisms underlying cooperative behaviour and focus on our experimental work with humans and our closest primate relatives. Differences in the proximate mechanisms also seem to contribute to explaining humans' greater ability to cooperate and enforce cooperation.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Behavioural Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | ||||
Publisher: | The Royal Society Publishing | ||||
ISSN: | 0962-8436 | ||||
Official Date: | 2 August 2010 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 365 | ||||
Number: | Number 1553 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 11 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 2663-2674 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2010.0157 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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