Authors
Mario Gutiérrez-Roig, Carlos Gracia-Lázaro, Josep Perelló, Yamir Moreno, Angel Sánchez
Publication date
2014/7/15
Journal
Nature communications
Volume
5
Issue
1
Pages
4362
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK
Description
While human societies are extraordinarily cooperative in comparison with other social species, the question of why we cooperate with unrelated individuals remains open. Here we report results of a lab-in-the-field experiment with people of different ages in a social dilemma. We find that the average amount of cooperativeness is independent of age except for the elderly, who cooperate more, and a behavioural transition from reciprocal, but more volatile behaviour to more persistent actions towards the end of adolescence. Although all ages react to the cooperation received in the previous round, young teenagers mostly respond to what they see in their neighbourhood regardless of their previous actions. Decisions then become more predictable through midlife, when the act of cooperating or not is more likely to be repeated. Our results show that mechanisms such as reciprocity, which is based on reacting to …
Total citations
2015201620172018201920202021202220232024613684710286
Scholar articles