Definition
Interaction(s) among two or more actors, leading to the increased fitness of the parties involved.
Introduction
Cooperation has been considered an evolutionary conundrum, wherein according to evolutionary theory free-riders accrue greater individual payoffs in comparison to cooperators in social interaction (Dawkins 2006). This imbalance is considered to allow cheaters to invade a population, driving cooperative strategies to extinction. Socioecological pressures have also been found to promote the emergence of defection, as inter-individual interactions that involve cheating, manipulation, or simply lack of cooperative efforts have been found to be associated with unstable and unpredictable ecologies for which long-term investments (including investments in long-term cooperative relationships or community efforts) do not offer reliable rewards (Figueredo et al. 2006).
With the purpose of solving this biological conundrum, numerous perspectives have been developed in the...
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References
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Peñaherrera-Aguirre, M., Zerbe, J., Fernandes, H.B.F. (2018). Social Cooperation. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1578-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1578-1
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