Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans
Humans have a sophisticated ability to learn from others, termed social learning, which has allowed us spread over the planet, construct complex societies, and travel to the moon. It has been hypothesized that social learning has played a pivotal role in making human societies cooperative, by favori...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Published: |
Royal Society
2017
|
| _version_ | 1797057299106234368 |
|---|---|
| author | Burton-Chellew, M El Mouden, C West, S |
| author_facet | Burton-Chellew, M El Mouden, C West, S |
| author_sort | Burton-Chellew, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Humans have a sophisticated ability to learn from others, termed social learning, which has allowed us spread over the planet, construct complex societies, and travel to the moon. It has been hypothesized that social learning has played a pivotal role in making human societies cooperative, by favoring cooperation even when it is not favored by genetical selection. However, this hypothesis lacks direct experimental testing, and the opposite prediction has also been made, that social learning disfavors cooperation. We experimentally tested how different aspects of social learning affect the level of cooperation in public-goods games. We found that: (1) social information never increased cooperation and usually led to decreased cooperation; (2) cooperation was lowest when individuals could observe how successful individuals behaved; and (3) cooperation declined because individuals preferred to copy successful individuals, who cooperated less, rather than copy common behaviours. Overall, these results suggest that individuals use social information to try and improve their own success, and that this can lead to lower levels of cooperation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:34:20Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:1e86c957-979c-4c49-9047-d5230e0da887 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T19:34:20Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Royal Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:1e86c957-979c-4c49-9047-d5230e0da8872022-03-26T11:16:55ZSocial learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humansJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:1e86c957-979c-4c49-9047-d5230e0da887Symplectic Elements at OxfordRoyal Society2017Burton-Chellew, MEl Mouden, CWest, SHumans have a sophisticated ability to learn from others, termed social learning, which has allowed us spread over the planet, construct complex societies, and travel to the moon. It has been hypothesized that social learning has played a pivotal role in making human societies cooperative, by favoring cooperation even when it is not favored by genetical selection. However, this hypothesis lacks direct experimental testing, and the opposite prediction has also been made, that social learning disfavors cooperation. We experimentally tested how different aspects of social learning affect the level of cooperation in public-goods games. We found that: (1) social information never increased cooperation and usually led to decreased cooperation; (2) cooperation was lowest when individuals could observe how successful individuals behaved; and (3) cooperation declined because individuals preferred to copy successful individuals, who cooperated less, rather than copy common behaviours. Overall, these results suggest that individuals use social information to try and improve their own success, and that this can lead to lower levels of cooperation. |
| spellingShingle | Burton-Chellew, M El Mouden, C West, S Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| title | Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| title_full | Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| title_fullStr | Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| title_short | Social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| title_sort | social learning and the demise of costly cooperation in humans |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT burtonchellewm sociallearningandthedemiseofcostlycooperationinhumans AT elmoudenc sociallearningandthedemiseofcostlycooperationinhumans AT wests sociallearningandthedemiseofcostlycooperationinhumans |