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Cooperation in adversity: An evolutionary approach

Lookup NU author(s): Dr John Lazarus

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).

Abstract

Throughout the organic world cooperation provides mutual benefit but is vulnerable to exploitation from free-riders. Over the last 30 years work in evolutionary biology and game theory has provided understanding of the conditions necessary for the maintenance of cooperation, and advances in gene-culture coevolution theory have extended this understanding to our own species. After a preamble on the evolutionary analysis of behaviour I outline this work. I then consider how cooperation is influenced by environmental adversity and find that in non-human species it is enhanced under these circumstances in a range of taxa. In a sample of human cases the same result is found in a majority, but the opposite effect in some when socioeconomic position is the measure of quality. In anthropological studies of societies living in extremis, again the opposite effect is found. I propose a sigmoid shape for the relationship between adversity and fitness (or human well-being) and a consequent inverted-U shaped relationship between adversity and the benefit of cooperation. Most of the data presented on the relationship between adversity and cooperation are consistent with this proposal. I suggest further tests of the proposal and place the study of cooperation in the broader context of prosociality.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Lazarus J

Editor(s): Matthew Johnson

Publication type: Book Chapter

Publication status: Published

Book Title: Precariousness, Community and Participation

Year: 2018

Pages: 125-152

Print publication date: 13/06/2018

Online publication date: 07/12/2018

Acceptance date: 22/11/2017

Publisher: Routledge

Place Published: Abingdon

URL: https://www.routledge.com/Precariousness-Community-and-Participation/Johnson/p/book/9780367589691

Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item

ISBN: 9781138499317

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