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Cognitive Cooperation: When the Going Gets Tough, Think as a Group

In: Teamwork

Author

Listed:
  • David Sloan Wilson
  • John J. Timmel
  • Ralph R. Miller

Abstract

Cooperation is found throughout the animal kingdom and is especially common in our own species. For cooperation to evolve, there must first be a task that requires the coordinated action of more than one individual. Then it must be possible to solve the problems of cheating that often accompany coordinated action. Sometimes there is little incentive to cheat because cooperation produces large benefits for everyone at trivial individual cost. At other times cooperation is more costly and evolves only in groups where genetic relatedness is high or social control mechanisms are in place. Social insect colonies are one pinnacle of cooperation in the animal kingdom. Human social groups are another pinnacle, although the evolutionary pathways were not necessarily the same in the two cases (Sober and Wilson, 1998).

Suggested Citation

  • David Sloan Wilson & John J. Timmel & Ralph R. Miller, 2005. "Cognitive Cooperation: When the Going Gets Tough, Think as a Group," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Natalie Gold (ed.), Teamwork, chapter 2, pages 33-55, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-52320-3_3
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230523203_3
    as

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