1. Evolution, Biology and the Cooperative Instinct
Rod White
Richard Ivey School of Business
Barbara Decker Pierce
Kings University

2. Cooperative Instinct
Organized groups beat solitaires in the competition for resources and larger organized groups beat smaller ones of the same species.
E.O. Wilson

3. Cooperative Instinct and Human Evolution
500 generations as farmers and herders
10 generations as managers and modern workers
Size of cooperative groupings
100,000 generations as hunters and foragers
The coevolutionary dynamic is no longer functioning.
Too short a time frame; too much genetic mixing of social groups.
But yet we still observe an increase in the size of human cooperative groups.
-250k
-10k
years before present

4. Can Cooperation Evolve?
Cooperative Group
Selfish Group C S C C C C S S C C C C S S C C S C S C C

5. Can Cooperation Evolve? (Genetic competition among cooperators)
Cooperative Group Members
Selfish Group Members
Simple organisms act in their
genetic self-interest.
What if the organism has the cognitive capacity to modify its social behaviors based upon information about other group members? C S S C C S C S S S C C S S S S S C C S C S

6. Within Group Cooperation
Help your own kin (inclusive fitness).
Help those who helped, or might help you; refuse to help non-cooperators. (direct reciprocity)
Observe interactions of other group members and help those who help others (indirect reciprocity).
Gossip with other members about each others’ reputations. Help members with good reputations.
Punish non-cooperators based upon reputation or observation. (altruistic punishment)
cognitive ability / group size
Self-interested
Cooperation
Group-interested
Cooperation

7. Bridging the Altruism Divide
Simple norms of reciprocity emerge.
Help other cooperators; avoid non-cooperators.
Norms are applied consistently within groups (social imitation).
Norms vary between groups.
Low cost forms of altruistic punishment arise.
Through a co-evolutionary process punishments escalate.
Avoidance  Shunning  Ostracism  Homicide

8. Cooperative Instinct Hypothesis
How do we organize and manage to take advantage of the cooperative instinct?
Innate predisposition to sacrifice some individual self-interest for the benefit of the group.

9. Cooperative Instinct Implications for Organizations
Teams influence membership.
Select other cooperators and exclude non-cooperators.
Avoid legitimizing self-interested behaviors and recognize community oriented behaviors.
Gossip is good.
Allows identification of cooperators and non-cooperators.
Allow teams to sanction self-interested behaviors.
Manage group identity and potential for between group competition.

11. Multilevel Selection (Individual Fitness versus Group Fitness)
Cooperative Group
Selfish Group S S C C S S C S S S S S C S C