Culture and cooperation
- Gächter, Simon Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Institute for the Study of Labor, Munich DE-81679, Germany
- Herrmann, Benedikt Centre of Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham, Sir Clive Granger Building, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
- Thöni, Christian University of St Gallen, SEW-HSG, Varnbuelstrasse 14, CH-9000 St Gallen, Switzerland
- 2010-9-12
Published in:
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. - The Royal Society. - 2010, vol. 365, no. 1553, p. 2651-2661
English
Does the cultural background influence the success with which genetically unrelated individuals cooperate in social dilemma situations? In this paper, we provide an answer by analysing the data of
Herrmann
et al
. (2008
a
)
, who studied cooperation and punishment in 16 subject pools from six different world cultures (as classified by
Inglehart & Baker (2000)
). We use analysis of variance to disentangle the importance of cultural background relative to individual heterogeneity and group-level differences in cooperation. We find that culture has a substantial influence on the extent of cooperation, in addition to individual heterogeneity and group-level differences identified by previous research. The significance of this result is that cultural background has a substantial influence on cooperation in otherwise identical environments. This is particularly true in the presence of punishment opportunities.
Does the cultural background influence the success with which genetically unrelated individuals cooperate in social dilemma situations? In this paper, we provide an answer by analysing the data of
Herrmann
. (2008
)
, who studied cooperation and punishment in 16 subject pools from six different world cultures (as classified by
). We use analysis of variance to disentangle the importance of cultural background relative to individual heterogeneity and group-level differences in cooperation. We find that culture has a substantial influence on the extent of cooperation, in addition to individual heterogeneity and group-level differences identified by previous research. The significance of this result is that cultural background has a substantial influence on cooperation in otherwise identical environments. This is particularly true in the presence of punishment opportunities.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1098/rstb.2010.0135
- ISSN 0962-8436
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/201634
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