The evolutionary roots of human collaboration: coordination and sharing of resources

Humans’ ability to collaborate to obtain otherwise inaccessible goals may be one main cause for our success as a species. Comparative psychological research with children and our closest primate relatives is starting to elucidate the phylogenetic roots as well as the unique psychological mechanisms...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2013-09, Vol.1299 (1), p.68-76
Main Author: Melis, Alicia P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biological Evolution
Bullying
Children
Chimpanzees
Cognition - physiology
Collaboration
Competitive Behavior - physiology
Cooperative Behavior
coordination
Evolutionary
fairness
Food
Foods
Human
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Motivation - physiology
Pan troglodytes
Roots
sharing
Social Behavior
Studies
Tolerances
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Summary:Humans’ ability to collaborate to obtain otherwise inaccessible goals may be one main cause for our success as a species. Comparative psychological research with children and our closest primate relatives is starting to elucidate the phylogenetic roots as well as the unique psychological mechanisms that support our cooperative behavior. For mutually beneficial collaboration, individuals need (1) cognitive mechanisms to coordinate actions with partners and (2) mechanisms to distribute the acquired resources in a way that incentivizes partners to continue collaborating. Several recent studies suggest that we share with chimpanzees many of the cognitive mechanisms required for successful coordination: chimpanzees understand the need to act jointly with a partner, that is, recruiting the partner when the problem requires collaboration and even helping her to perform her role. However, in contrast to very young children, they do not seem well equipped to share resources obtained through joint effort. Chimpanzees’ competitive nature around food constrains their sharing behavior, and because they do not share differently after individual or collaborative effort, partners lose motivation to continue collaborating. All this suggests that higher interindividual tolerance around food and mechanisms to counteract bullying behavior and share the spoils after a collaborative effort are probably derived human traits.
ISSN:0077-8923
1749-6632
DOI:10.1111/nyas.12263