Balancing selfishness and norm conformity can explain human behavior in large-scale prisoner's dilemma games and can poise human groups near criticality

Cooperation is central to the success of human societies as it is crucial for overcoming some of the most pressing social challenges of our time; still, how human cooperation is achieved and may persist is a main puzzle in the social and biological sciences. Recently, scholars have recognized the importance of social norms as solutions to major local and large-scale collective action problems, from the management of water resources to the reduction of smoking in public places to the change in fertility practices. Yet a well-founded model of the effect of social norms on human cooperation is still lacking. Using statistical-physics techniques and integrating findings from cognitive and behavioral sciences, we present an analytically tractable model in which individuals base their decisions to cooperate both on the economic rewards they obtain and on the degree to which their action complies with social norms. Results from this parsimonious model are in agreement with observations in recent large-scale experiments with humans. We also find the phase diagram of the model and show that the experimental human group is poised near a critical point, a regime where recent work suggests living systems respond to changing external conditions in an efficient and coordinated manner.

Publication type: 
Articolo
Author or Creator: 
Realpe-Gomez, John
Andrighetto, Giulia
Nardin, Luis Gustavo
Antonio Montoya, Javier
Publisher: 
American Physical Society, Ridge, NY, Stati Uniti d'America
Source: 
Physical review. E (Print) 97 (2018). doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.97.042321
info:cnr-pdr/source/autori:Realpe-Gomez, John; Andrighetto, Giulia; Nardin, Luis Gustavo; Antonio Montoya, Javier/titolo:Balancing selfishness and norm conformity can explain human behavior in large-scale prisoner's dilemma games and can poise human group
Date: 
2018
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/393044
https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.97.042321
info:doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.97.042321
https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.97.042321
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Giulia Andrighetto's picture
Real name: