Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Cooperation through interdependence

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Gilbert Roberts

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.


Abstract

Cooperation is fundamental to human societies and widespread among animals, yet explaining how cooperative relationships persist without one party exploiting another remains a challenge. Although it is well established that altruism can be favoured when recipients are relatives or when they reciprocate, it is increasingly being recognized that many behaviours cannot be explained in these terms. Here, I argue that many cases of apparent altruism can be explained by interdependence. I formalize the degree of interdependence by defining an individual's 'stake' in another as the dependence of its fitness on that of the other. This provides a means of valuing others, analogous to Hamilton's valuation of relatives. It also provides a conceptual synthesis of theories of altruism, in which kinship and reciprocity become special cases. Interdependence means that cooperators can benefit as a secondary consequence of helping their recipients. Altruism can then be favoured when its costs are outweighed by the altruist's stake in the recipient's benefits. Whereas the exploitation problem makes reciprocal altruism inherently unstable, cooperation through interdependence can be stable because whatever others do, it is best to cooperate. I discuss the extent to which interdependence can explain examples of cooperation that cannot be explained in terms of kinship and reciprocity. © 2005 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Roberts G

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Animal Behaviour

Year: 2005

Volume: 70

Issue: 4

Pages: 901-908

ISSN (print): 0003-3472

ISSN (electronic): 1095-8282

Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.02.006

DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.02.006


Altmetrics

Altmetrics provided by Altmetric


Share