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Within-group competition reduces cooperation and payoffs in human groups

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  • Jessica L. Barker
  • Pat Barclay
  • H. Kern Reeve

Abstract

Social organisms in many taxa cooperate to produce resources that are shared among group members. Some cooperatively produced resources may be monopolized by individuals who invest in within-group competition, but these have largely been overlooked in empirical and theoretical research on human cooperation, which has focused on noncontestable public goods. In this study, we allow for the potential of within-group competition over cooperatively produced resources and use a game theoretic "tug-of-war" model and empirical test to show that such competition decreases the degree of cooperation within human groups and hence decreases group members' payoffs. Our study thus sheds light on how cooperative production and equal division of shared resources may have evolved, expands on current models of human cooperation to reflect the many natural conditions with opportunities for within-group competition, and demonstrates unifying principles in cooperation and competition across the animal kingdom.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica L. Barker & Pat Barclay & H. Kern Reeve, 2012. "Within-group competition reduces cooperation and payoffs in human groups," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 23(4), pages 735-741.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:beheco:v:23:y:2012:i:4:p:735-741.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/ars020
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pat Barclay & Stephen Benard, 2013. "Who Cries Wolf, and When? Manipulation of Perceived Threats to Preserve Rank in Cooperative Groups," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-13, September.
    2. Li-Li Li & Joshua M Plotnik & Shang-Wen Xia & Estelle Meaux & Rui-Chang Quan, 2021. "Cooperating elephants mitigate competition until the stakes get too high," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(9), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Guofang Liu & Chongde Lin & Ziqiang Xin, 2014. "The Effects of Within- and Between-Group Competition on Trust and Trustworthiness among Acquaintances," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-5, July.
    4. Jessica L Barker & Pat Barclay & H Kern Reeve, 2013. "Competition over Personal Resources Favors Contribution to Shared Resources in Human Groups," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-9, March.
    5. Gediminas Adomavicius & Shawn P. Curley & Alok Gupta & Pallab Sanyal, 2020. "How Decision Complexity Affects Outcomes in Combinatorial Auctions," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(11), pages 2579-2600, November.
    6. Charlotte Christensen & Andrew N Radford, 2018. "Dear enemies or nasty neighbors? Causes and consequences of variation in the responses of group-living species to territorial intrusions," Behavioral Ecology, International Society for Behavioral Ecology, vol. 29(5), pages 1004-1013.

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