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For other uses, see Cooperation (disambiguation).
This article is about cooperation as used in the social sciences. For co-operation in evolution, see Co-operation (evolution). For the economic model, see Cooperative.
Many animal species cooperate with each other in mutual symbiosis. One example is the Ocellaris clownfish, which dwells among the tentacles of Ritteri sea anemones. The anemones provide the clownfish with protection from their predators (which cannot tolerate the stings of the anemone's tentacles), while the fish defend the anemones against butterflyfish (which eat anemones)

Cooperation (sometimes written as co-operation or coöperation[1]) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for their common/mutual benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal and plant species cooperate both with other members of their own species and with members of other species (symbiosis or mutualism).[2]

In humans[edit]

Language allows humans to cooperate on a very large scale. Certain studies have shown that fairness affects human cooperation; individuals are willing to punish at their own cost (altruistic punishment) if they believe that they are being treated unfairly.[3][4] Sanfey, et al. conducted an experiment where 19 individuals were scanned using MRI while playing an Ultimatum Game in the role of the responder.[4] They were receiving offers from other human partners and from a computer partner. Remarkably, responders refused unfair offers from human partners at a significantly higher rate than those by a computer partner. The experiment also showed that altruistic punishment is associated with negative emotions that are being generated in unfair situations by the anterior insula of the brain.[4]

It has been observed that image scoring promotes cooperative behavior in situations where direct reciprocity is unlikely.[5] In situations where reputation and status are involved, humans tend to cooperate more.

In animals[edit]



Kin selection[edit]





Cooperative systems[edit]


  • Organisms form food chains and ecosystems.
  • People form families, tribes, cities and nations.



The Prisoner's Dilemma, the Ultimatum Game, and the Dictator Game.[edit]



In any case, two more recent games, the Ultimatum Game and the Dictator Game, showed that different context-related experimentations may lead to completely different results. In particular this is shown in the dictator's game, in which there are two human agents, one of which, "the ruler", is asked to decide the amount of wealth -usually in money-, between 100% and 0%, he/she is going to keep for him/herself and the one he/she is going to leave to the other human agent, which, in this game, is completely passive. Even if a "rational" economic behaviour would lead to keep the whole amount of good, it hasn't happened in experimentations, where human agents tend to share a variable amount of their goods anyway. These results were also considered a strong evidence of the absence of supposed "rational actors" in economy, especially from a neuroeconomics perspective.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Doll, Jen. "We Resist Further Cooperation on 'Coöperation'". The Wire. Retrieved August 11, 2014. 
  3. ^ Fehr, Ernst. "Altruistic punishment in humans". Macmillan Magazines Ltd. Retrieved 20 July 2011. 
  4. ^ a b c Sanfey, et al., Alan G. "The Neural Basis of Economic Decision-Making in the Ultimatum Game". Science. Retrieved 20 July 2011. 
  11. ^ van den Assem, van Dolder, and Thaler (2012). Split or Steal? Cooperative Behavior when the Stakes are Large. SSRN 1592456. 
  12. ^ Olsen, Harrington, and Siegelmann (2010). Conspecific Emotional Cooperation Biases Population Dynamics: A Cellular Automata Approach. 
  13. ^ Harrington, Olsen, and Siegelmann (2011). Communicated Somatic Markers Benefit the Individual and the Species. 


External links[edit]

  •, Cooperation platform for transport research (scientific)