NWO SWG L From Parochial to Intergroup Cooperation - CrossCoop

Applicants: Carsten de Dreu (Behavioural and Social Science, Groningen)
Zsombor Meder (Business and Economics, Groningen)

Team Members: PhD vacancy
Postdoc Vacancy

Project Description: Humans are increasingly organised in multi-level systems, living in neighbourhoods embedded in cities and working in departments embedded in large bureaucratic organisations. Whereas resilient and productive societies require individuals to cooperate both within and across groups, cooperation often remains in-group bounded and parochial. CrossCoop aims to reconcile the conundrum that humans (i) at both the cognitive-motivational and behavioural level favour their local groups and communities yet (ii) create robust multi-level systems. We (re)conceptualise parochialism as a form of conditional cooperation, rather than an evolved predisposition, and predict that parochialism transitions to universal, intergroup cooperation conditional upon incentive structures, group viscosity, and reputation-based partner choice. Predictions are tested in behavioural experiments (WP1; PhD) and evolutionary simulations (WP2; Postdoc). If successful, CrossCoop provides an explanation for when and how intergroup cooperation can evolve, and informs policy for preventing polarisation and conflict within and between complex social systems (WP3; Applicants).