Download or read book Resolving Social Dilemmas written by Margaret Foddy and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an accessible and state-of-the-art survey of current research on social dilemmas. A social dilemma arises when actions that are justifiable in terms of individual rationality (e.g. over-harvesting resources, or using private instead of public transportation) threaten the common good and in the long run the individual's own self-interest as well. The study of social dilemmas has important links with many areas in psychology, as well as with cognate disciplines such as risk analysis, environmental science, political science, and economics. Accordingly, the book should appeal not only to psychologists but also to a wider audience of scholars and researchers. Contributors include both established authorities and recent innovators, and the organization and contents of the book reflect the most recent trends in this exciting area. Increased attention is given to modeling dynamics and processes in social dilemmas, and greater emphasis placed on exploring structural solutions to dilemmas. New findings and theoretical developments regarding group and inter-group processes are highlighted and a move is made away from a heavy reliance on laboratory experiments and game theory to field studies and real-world applications. A scholarly prospective chapter at the beginning and an integrative concluding chapter provide useful overviews of the area and the contributions to the book.

Download or read book The Drama of the Commons written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-02-15 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "tragedy of the commons" is a central concept in human ecology and the study of the environment. It has had tremendous value for stimulating research, but it only describes the reality of human-environment interactions in special situations. Research over the past thirty years has helped clarify how human motivations, rules governing access to resources, the structure of social organizations, and the resource systems themselves interact to determine whether or not the many dramas of the commons end happily. In this book, leaders in the field review the evidence from several disciplines and many lines of research and present a state-of-the-art assessment. They summarize lessons learned and identify the major challenges facing any system of governance for resource management. They also highlight the major challenges for the next decade: making knowledge development more systematic; understanding institutions dynamically; considering a broader range of resources (such as global and technological commons); and taking into account the effects of social and historical context. This book will be a valuable and accessible introduction to the field for students and a resource for advanced researchers.

Download or read book Moral Sentiments and Material Interests written by Herbert Gintis and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral Sentiments and Material Interests presents an innovative synthesis of research in different disciplines to argue that cooperation stems not from the stereotypical selfish agent acting out of disguised self-interest but from the presence of "strong reciprocators" in a social group. Presenting an overview of research in economics, anthropology, evolutionary and human biology, social psychology, and sociology, the book deals with both the theoretical foundations and the policy implications of this explanation for cooperation. Chapter authors in the remaining parts of the book discuss the behavioral ecology of cooperation in humans and nonhuman primates, modeling and testing strong reciprocity in economic scenarios, and reciprocity and social policy. The evidence for strong reciprocity in the book includes experiments using the famous Ultimatum Game (in which two players must agree on how to split a certain amount of money or they both get nothing.)

Download or read book Game Theoretical Models in Biology written by Mark Broom and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2013-03-27 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering the major topics of evolutionary game theory, Game-Theoretical Models in Biology presents both abstract and practical mathematical models of real biological situations. It discusses the static aspects of game theory in a mathematically rigorous way that is appealing to mathematicians. In addition, the authors explore many applications of game theory to biology, making the text useful to biologists as well. The book describes a wide range of topics in evolutionary games, including matrix games, replicator dynamics, the hawk-dove game, and the prisoner’s dilemma. It covers the evolutionarily stable strategy, a key concept in biological games, and offers in-depth details of the mathematical models. Most chapters illustrate how to use MATLAB® to solve various games. Important biological phenomena, such as the sex ratio of so many species being close to a half, the evolution of cooperative behavior, and the existence of adornments (for example, the peacock’s tail), have been explained using ideas underpinned by game theoretical modeling. Suitable for readers studying and working at the interface of mathematics and the life sciences, this book shows how evolutionary game theory is used in the modeling of these diverse biological phenomena.

Download or read book The Critical Mass in Collective Action written by Gerald Marwell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-03-26 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problem of collective action is that each group member wants other members to make necessary sacrifices while he or she 'free rides', reaping the benefits of collective action without doing the work. Therefore, no one does the work and the common interest is not realized. This book analyses the social pressure whereby groups solve the problem of collective action.

Download or read book Understanding Behavior in the Context of Time written by Alan Strathman and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2006-04-21 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding Behavior in the Context of Time reviews the research on temporal orientation and brings together the disparate social behaviors influenced by time perspective. Organized into four sections, each chapter includes theory, research, applications, and directions for future research. Some chapters outline novel theoretical approaches that help to expand and/or integrate existing theories. The second part focuses on individual level processes and reviews the conceptualization, measurement, and lifespan development of time orientation; the outcomes associated with various time orientations; and how temporal factors influence attitudes and persuasion. Part three explores the role of time within interpersonal and group level processes as applied to such areas as close relationships, group cooperation, aggression, organizational behavior, pro-environmental behavior, and cultural issues. This book will be of interest to social and personality psychologists, and the book's applied emphasis will appeal to health, environmental, and industrial psychologists.

Download or read book Cooperation in Modern Society written by Anders Biel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do so many people volunteer to help others in need in society today? What makes people give up the convenience of driving their car to benefit a better environment? And why are citizens, in general, quite prepared to pay taxes to ensure adequate health care, and support for the elderly and unemployed? These are examples of a more fundamental question addressed in this book: why do people cooperate for the welfare of their community, state, or organization? Cooperation in Modern Society is a unique collection of contributions from internationally reputed scholars across the social sciences.

Download or read book Social Dilemmas written by Paul A. M. Van Lange and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a psychological overview of research on human cooperation, while discussing evolutionary and cultural perspectives, along with applications in the management, environment, national security, and health.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Prosocial Behavior written by David A. Schroeder and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Prosocial Behavior provides a comprehensive review of the current literature on when and why people act to benefit others. It provides a comprehensive overview of the field to give both the casual reader and the neophyte to the field some perspective about fundamental questions (what, why, when, and who) relative to prosocial behavior. Taking a multi-level approach, the chapters represent the broad spectrum of this multi-faceted domain. Topics range from micro-level analyses involving evolutionary and comparative psychological factors to macro-level applications, such as reducing intergroup conflicts and ethnic genocide. Between these extremes, the contributors--all internationally recognized in their field--offer their perspectives on developmental processes that may predispose individuals to empathize with and respond to the needs of others, individual differences that seem to interact with situational demands to promote helping, and the underlying motivations of those helping others. They explain volunteerism, intragroup cooperation, and intergroup cooperation to move the analysis from the individual to group-level phenomena. They extend the consideration of this topic to include support of pro-environmental actions, means to encourage participation in medical clinical trials, and the promotion of world peace. The ways that gender, interpersonal relationships, race, and religion might affect decisions to give aid and support to others are also addressed. The final chapter offers a unique view of prosocial behavior that encourages researchers and readers to take an even broader consideration of the field to search for a prosocial consilience.

Download or read book Game Theory written by Shaun Hargreaves Heap and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Requiring no more than basic arithmetic, this book provides a careful and accessible introduction to the basic pillars of Game Theory, tracing its intellectual origins and philosophical premises.

Download or read book Social Dilemmas written by Samuel S Komorita and published by Westview Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emphasizing real-world examples, Komorita and Parks illustrate both the theoretical and the ecological relevance of social dilemmas, focusing on "exchange theory" to explain how conflicts are resolved. This book is appropriate for students of psychology, political science, and sociology.

Download or read book Cooperation and Collective Action written by David M. Carballo and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2012-12-15 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[Cooperation research] is one of the busiest and most exciting areas of transdisciplinary science right now, linking evolution, ecology and social science. . . this is the first major work or collection to address linkages between archaeology and cooperation research."—Michael E. Smith, Arizona State University Past archaeological literature on cooperation theory has emphasized competition's role in cultural evolution. As a result, bottom-up possibilities for group cooperation have been under theorized in favor of models stressing top-down leadership, while evidence from a range of disciplines has demonstrated humans to effectively sustain cooperative undertakings through a number of social norms and institutions. Cooperation and Collective Action is the first volume to focus on the use of archaeological evidence to understand cooperation and collective action. Disentangling the motivations and institutions that foster group cooperation among competitive individuals remains one of the few great conundrums within evolutionary theory. The breadth and material focus of archaeology provide a much needed complement to existing research on cooperation and collective action, which thus far has relied largely on game-theoretic modeling, surveys of college students from affluent countries, brief ethnographic experiments, and limited historic cases. In Cooperation and Collective Action, diverse case studies address the evolution of the emergence of norms, institutions, and symbols of complex societies through the last 10,000 years. This book is an important contribution to the literature on cooperation in human societies that will appeal to archaeologists and other scholars interested in cooperation research.

Download or read book Social Dilemmas written by Wim Liebrand and published by Garland Science. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the advances and insights made by social scientists from around the world into the understanding and resolution of social dilemmas. Each chapter discusses its own research findings against the background of a more comprehensive view of social dilemnas.

Download or read book The Evolution of Cooperation written by Robert Axelrod and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A famed political scientist's classic argument for a more cooperative world We assume that, in a world ruled by natural selection, selfishness pays. So why cooperate? In The Evolution of Cooperation, political scientist Robert Axelrod seeks to answer this question. In 1980, he organized the famed Computer Prisoners Dilemma Tournament, which sought to find the optimal strategy for survival in a particular game. Over and over, the simplest strategy, a cooperative program called Tit for Tat, shut out the competition. In other words, cooperation, not unfettered competition, turns out to be our best chance for survival. A vital book for leaders and decision makers, The Evolution of Cooperation reveals how cooperative principles help us think better about everything from military strategy, to political elections, to family dynamics.

Download or read book Cooperation and Its Evolution written by Kim Sterelny and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-08-06 with total page 587 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays from a range of disciplinary perspectives show the central role that cooperation plays in structuring our world. This collection reports on the latest research on an increasingly pivotal issue for evolutionary biology: cooperation. The chapters are written from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and utilize research tools that range from empirical survey to conceptual modeling, reflecting the rich diversity of work in the field. They explore a wide taxonomic range, concentrating on bacteria, social insects, and, especially, humans. Part I ("Agents and Environments") investigates the connections of social cooperation in social organizations to the conditions that make cooperation profitable and stable, focusing on the interactions of agent, population, and environment. Part II ("Agents and Mechanisms") focuses on how proximate mechanisms emerge and operate in the evolutionary process and how they shape evolutionary trajectories. Throughout the book, certain themes emerge that demonstrate the ubiquity of questions regarding cooperation in evolutionary biology: the generation and division of the profits of cooperation; transitions in individuality; levels of selection, from gene to organism; and the "human cooperation explosion" that makes our own social behavior particularly puzzling from an evolutionary perspective. Bradford Books imprint

Download or read book Contemporary Psychological Research on Social Dilemmas written by Ramzi Suleiman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-06-21 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is organized around four core issues, individual differences, which determine people's preferences for outcomes that promote either their own or their group's well-being; the study of dynamic processes based on simulations of artificial societies; social dilemmas that emerge in intergroup conflicts; and the effect of various types and sources of uncertainty on behavior in social dilemma situations."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Social Instinct written by Nichola Raihani and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2021-08-31 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Enriching" —Publisher's Weekly "Excellent and illuminating"—Wall Street Journal In the tradition of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct is a profound and engaging look at the hidden relationships underpinning human evolution, and why cooperation is key to our future survival. Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It’s how life progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material to nation states. But given what we know about evolution, cooperation is also something of a puzzle. How does cooperation begin, when on a Darwinian level, all the genes in the body care about is being passed on to the next generation? Why do meerkats care for one another’s offspring? Why do babbler birds in the Kalahari form colonies in which only a single pair breeds? And how come some reef-dwelling fish punish each other for harming fish from another species? A biologist by training, Raihani looks at where and how collaborative behavior emerges throughout the animal kingdom, and what problems it solves. She reveals that the species that exhibit cooperative behaviour most similar to our own tend not to be other apes; they are birds, insects, and fish, occupying far more distant branches of the evolutionary tree. By understanding the problems they face, and how they cooperate to solve them, we can glimpse how human cooperation first evolved. And we can also understand what it is about the way we cooperate that makes us so distinctive–and so successful.