Cooperation: Why do humans help each other?

In a unique study aimed at learning how to maximize human cooperation, researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid discovered the following:

·         An estimated 5% of people always try to help their neighbors;

·         An estimated 35% never do; and

·         The remaining 60% cooperate depending on their mood or according to how their neighbor has behaved previously. 

In a posting at psypost.org earlier this year, study author Professor Jose A. Cuesta was quoted as saying: “We have proved that in general, decisions regarding cooperation do not reflect so much economic incentives as much as they do the fact that the individuals with whom they interact cooperate or not.”  The authors point out that the study’s findings have implications across all fields, and can be used to optimize collaboration and innovation networks, where large groups of people or companies participate in a common task.  “In these cases,” explained Angel Sanchez, a co-author also quoted in the psypost.org story: “We must foment a generally cooperative atmosphere for the participants, which then has implications for the size of work groups and the need for timely incentives in order to avoid falling into a non-cooperative mind set.”

The psypost.org story explained these details of the experiment: The question at hand was determining if, in a dilemma where someone would have to choose between cooperating or not with other people who were connected through a network, a situation could be achieved in which all or most of the people collaborated. The theories and the computer simulations did not offer a univocal response and in many cases made contradictory predictions; because of this these scientists decided to carry out an experiment with real individuals. For this purpose, the researchers asked for volunteers among the student body at the UC3M Leganés campus and had them then interact through a computer program so that they could see the people with whom they had to cooperate (while keeping their anonymity at all times).

The psypost.org story added the following: In the instructions given to 169 participants in this experiment, words such as cooperate, betray, or let down were not employed in order to avoid inducing certain behavior – instead, choices were indicated by colors. During each round, a player obtained a certain benefit for their choice according to what their neighbors had chosen and he/she was informed what the others had done or won. The interaction was repeated a certain number of rounds and in two different situations; one in which the neighbors were always the same and another in which they changed after each round. “In this way,” the researchers pointed out, “we were able to compare the result when there was an established contact network with what happens when there is not and the individuals interact with different groups.”

The study was performed by Professor Cuesta, Full Professor Angel Sanchez (both with the Mathematics Department at UC3M), a team of researchers from the National University of Distance Learning in Spain and the Universidad Catolica del Norte in Antogasgasta, Chile.  The study was published earlier this year in journal PLoS ONE.