tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/cooperation-4482/articlesCooperation – The Conversation2024-02-05T09:27:55Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223882024-02-05T09:27:55Z2024-02-05T09:27:55ZMali, Burkina Faso and Niger want to leave Ecowas. A political scientist explains the fallout<p><em>Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have sent Ecowas, west Africa’s main political union of 15 countries, a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/28/niger-mali-burkina-faso-announce-withdrawal-from-ecowas">formal notice</a> of their withdrawal from the bloc. The three countries are governed by military rulers who <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/coups-africa-even-ecowas">have overthrown</a> democratically elected leaders since 2021.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation Africa’s Godfred Akoto Boafo asked political scientist <a href="https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/staff/dr-olayinka-ajala/">Olayinka Ajala</a> about the implications of the withdrawal.</em></p>
<h2>Why are Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso withdrawing?</h2>
<p>The three countries have given <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/africa/20240129-mali-and-burkina-faso-withdraw-from-ecowas">three main reasons</a>.</p>
<p>First is what they call the “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/28/niger-mali-burkina-faso-announce-withdrawal-from-ecowas">illegal, illegitimate, inhumane and irresponsible sanctions</a>” imposed on them for truncating their democracies. </p>
<p>Second is the failure of Ecowas to assist them in their “existential fight against terrorism and insecurity”. </p>
<p>The juntas have also argued that Ecowas has deviated from the founding principles of the organisation and is now <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68122947">controlled by foreign powers</a>. </p>
<p>In 2001, Ecowas adopted a protocol on democracy and good governance which included a mechanism for unconstitutional changes of government. <a href="https://www.eisa.org/pdf/ecowas2001protocol.pdf">Article 1a</a> of the protocol maintains a “zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means”. </p>
<p>Ecowas cited this clause as its reason for suspending the three countries and for imposing sanctions against them.</p>
<p>Ecowas has made it clear that it won’t work with the regimes. Its statements make it clear that it has taken a strong stance because it wishes to deter military coups in other countries within the bloc. </p>
<p>The regional bloc is also clearly frustrated at the lack of interest the three countries have shown in returning to democratic rule. It has asked for a clear and definite transition timetable, especially for Mali and Burkina Faso. </p>
<h2>What impact will the withdrawal have on Ecowas?</h2>
<p>The main impact will be on trade and economic development. Ecowas is primarily an economic community and the loss of any member will affect trade and economic development.</p>
<p>The three countries collectively account for 8% of the <a href="https://countryeconomy.com/countries/groups/economic-community-west-african-states">US$761 billion</a> Ecowas gross domestic product (GDP). In 2022, the total trade volume from the Ecowas region totalled <a href="https://punchng.com/mali-b-faso-niger-exit-may-weaken-277bn-ecowas-trade-report/">US$277.22 billion</a>. </p>
<p>The concern is that the exit of these countries could affect the flow of goods and services in the bloc. </p>
<p>Leaving the bloc could have other knock-on effects too:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The economic collapse of the countries. These countries have strategic importance, especially in food security. Niger is a key source of onions while Burkina Faso exports tomatoes to the sub-region.</p></li>
<li><p>This would lead to an exodus of citizens to other Ecowas countries, further threatening the stability of the bloc. </p></li>
<li><p>Concerns that the three countries will enter into bilateral relationships with countries that might not be favourable to other Ecowas countries. For example, there are already concerns about Niger’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/niger-and-russia-are-forming-military-ties-3-ways-this-could-upset-old-allies-221696">alliance with Russia</a> after it severed ties with France. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What impact will it have on each of the countries?</h2>
<p>The main impact on the countries will be on the movement of people, goods and services. </p>
<p>Under Ecowas, members enjoy unrestricted movement of citizens within the bloc. Citizens of Ecowas countries can live and work in any country in the bloc. For instance, there are more than 5 million citizens of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger living and working in Côte d'Ivoire alone. Ghana, Togo and Republic of Benin also host large numbers of Nigeriens. </p>
<p>The citizens of all three landlocked countries would no longer be able to travel to other Ecowas states without impediments. Niger also shares a border of over 1,600km with seven states in Nigeria and <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-01-30/analysis-west-africas-brexit-moment-spells-trouble-for-the-region">80% of its trade</a> is done with Nigeria. </p>
<p>The sanctions imposed on Niger by Ecowas are <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/sahel/niger/ecowas-nigeria-and-niger-coup-sanctions-time-recalibrate">already affecting</a> citizens of the country. Hardship is likely to increase after the exit if Nigeria decides to police its borders. </p>
<p>Also, depending on how Ecowas agrees to relate to the countries in future, there could be restrictions on goods and services which would further affect the economies of these countries. </p>
<h2>What impact will it have on security in the region?</h2>
<p>The security arrangement might not be affected in the short term. But it could be in the long term. There is already limited security cooperation between the three countries and other Ecowas members. For instance, they have all withdrawn from the G5 Sahel, resulting in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/6/chad-mauritania-pave-way-to-dissolve-g5-anti-rebel-alliance#:%7E:text=The%20G5%20was%20created%20in,major%20issue%20across%20the%20Sahel.&text=The%20two%20remaining%20members%20of,other%20three%20founding%20countries%20left.">collapse of the organisation</a>. </p>
<p>Although the lack of security support from Ecowas was stated as one of the reasons for exiting Ecowas, a total collapse of existing security infrastructure would affect not only the three countries but also other relatively stable states such as Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and Benin. The three states have joined forces to form the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/military-led-sahel-states-rally-thousands-support-alliance-2023-12-30/">Alliance of Sahel States</a>, but without support from regional groups such as Ecowas, they will struggle to curtail insurgencies. </p>
<p>Currently, Mali has over 1,000 members of Africa Corps (formerly Wagner group), supported by Russia. There are <a href="https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analyses/2024-01-31/wagner-forces-under-a-new-flag-russias-africa-corps-burkina-faso">100 in Burkina Faso</a>. After months of Burkina Faso insisting it would not engage foreign mercenaries, the first contingent arrived in January 2024 and more are expected soon. Niger also recently agreed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/niger-and-russia-are-forming-military-ties-3-ways-this-could-upset-old-allies-221696">military cooperation</a> with Russia. </p>
<p>This indicates the three countries still require external assistance to combat insecurity. The problem is that Russia is fighting a huge war in Ukraine and might not be able to support the three countries as much as they would require. If the three countries fail to combat insurgence through the newly formed Alliance of Sahel States, the threat will spread to other countries in the bloc and beyond. </p>
<p>Ecowas leaders have indicated that they are willing to have a dialogue with the three countries. I think Ecowas granting some concessions to prevent them from exiting would be in the interest of the bloc and all the citizens of Ecowas countries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olayinka Ajala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The decision by the three countries could change the dynamics of Ecowas.Olayinka Ajala, Senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140912023-09-25T12:06:46Z2023-09-25T12:06:46ZKindness has persisted in a competitive world – cultural evolution can explain why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550006/original/file-20230925-25-e96mgq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=201%2C52%2C4774%2C3259&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people return lost wallets.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-lost-his-wallet-on-bench-615012233">Dobo Kristian/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently, I was walking with some fellow parents after nursery drop-off when we came across a five-pound note lying on the pavement. We stood around it for a moment, a bit awkwardly, until someone suggested putting it on a nearby bench. Then one of the parents remarked that we’d probably have behaved differently — that is, we would have just taken the money — had we been alone.</p>
<p>This relates to a classic question in studies of human generosity: do we behave more selfishly when we aren’t being observed? There is a lot of <a href="https://app.cooperationdatabank.org/">research</a> on this with mixed findings. The debate rages on, across the psychological and biological sciences, as well as in popular culture, about whether kindness can exist in a competitive world.</p>
<p>Yet, despite a common theme of dismissing the ethical teachings of many organised religions worldwide, one of the points of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of repentance, is to help us learn to behave better regardless of who is watching. There’s an evolutionary beauty to the teachings of religions, which are the products of thousands of years of cultural change and refinement.</p>
<p>On Yom Kippur, many Jewish people spend much of — if not all — their day at synagogue. We fast and ask for forgiveness for the wrongs we’ve committed, and consider how we can improve ourselves. A major part of this is recognising the customs of gift-giving in Judaism, which are given the umbrella term tzedakah.</p>
<p>Tzedakah has several features that help to guide us around generosity. Strangely, however, some of these also accord with expectations from evolutionary theory, which defines altruism as something that is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982207014996">possible only when we don’t receive anything back</a> — including adulation — for our charitable acts. </p>
<p>For example, there are, we’re taught, <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/45907/jewish/Eight-Levels-of-Charity.htm">levels</a> of better or worse giving. Donating publicly is a lower level, while one of the highest is giving when neither the giver nor the receiver knows the other’s identity.</p>
<p>It sounds like a trivial difference, but trying to give anyone anything anonymously is hard. (Have you tried?) We always have an impulse to tell others about our generous spirit, and fighting against that is combating our own evolutionary history, which encodes in us the desire for a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0290">good reputation</a> just as much as a desire for attaining resources that help us to survive.</p>
<p>It’s no coincidence, for example, that when the anthropologist Polly Wiessner <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/595622?prevSearch=%28wiessner%29+AND+%5Bjournal%3A+ca%5D&searchHistoryKey=">explored</a> generosity in economic games among a group of hunter-gatherers, several asked her whether their donations really were anonymous. </p>
<p>We have a drive to keep others informed about — or to hide — our actions. And a set of principles derived from religious customs, such as tzedakah, helps us, in turn, to stifle those impulses.</p>
<p>Religious and cultural practices around the world offer similar guidance, helping humans to act in ways that benefit each other, rather than themselves and their families alone. The Bible’s golden rule — often formulated as “treat others as you’d like to be treated” — is an interesting example because it has developed, independently, in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/31834">numerous societies around the world</a>. </p>
<p>Formulating ethical guidance around empathy helps maximise generosity across society: we’d of course want help if we were in the same situation as a homeless person.</p>
<p>This doesn’t require organised religion. Hunter-gatherer groups, which better represent the circumstances our species evolved in, have many similar examples. </p>
<p>The Maasai people of Kenya <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4937096/">practice</a> osotua: relationships between people that operate based on need. When someone forms an osotua relationship (the term translates literally into English as “umbilical cord”) with another, they enter into an unwritten contract to help their partner in times of need.</p>
<h2>Cultural evolution</h2>
<p>Cultural evolution — the spread and change of information that isn’t encoded in our genes — helps to explain the ubiquity and complexity of these systems. Cultural changes are far faster than biology, allowing intelligent species like humans to develop behavioural adaptations for managing complex social environments. </p>
<p>The study of those changes has helped us to understand how we successfully spread around the world as cooperative groups. For example, biological evolution, <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-humans-had-to-become-more-feminine-before-they-could-dominate-the-planet-42952">including a reduction in testosterone</a>, has helped humans be more cooperative, but cultural changes <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23024804/">have accelerated this process</a>.</p>
<p>Tzedakah, the golden rule, osotua, or any practice that helps to maintain good treatment of others in society, is the result of tens of thousands of years of cultural trial and error. The customs passed down over time are those that help us to thrive as cultural groups.</p>
<p>Moral philosophy has similar aims, though the major tenets of its different appearances — for example, Kant’s categorical imperative, which in part focuses on how we should accept only those rules that everyone should accept — result from the reasoned approach of one or many people.</p>
<p>Many of us are taught these views in schools and universities. But unlike the more ancient religious tenets, they aren’t often a part of our basic acculturation — though that doesn’t mean they have any less to offer us. Both moral philosophy and guidance from our religions have much to teach us about how to overcome our selfish natures.</p>
<p>Nearly 2,000 years ago, Aristotle wrote that to be ethical, we shouldn’t just follow a rule but aim to understand the purpose that rule serves. Evolutionary thinking illustrates that purpose clearly: cultural evolution helped us to conquer our selfish beginnings. </p>
<p>What’s been passed down helps each of us to live peacefully in the societies we’ve inherited. Dismissing these teachings on any biased grounds — disliking religion, for one — is likely to leave us all worse off. Try to understand rules before you ignore them — and next time you find a fiver on the ground, you might think about the ancient dilemma your discovery represents.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan R Goodman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ancient religious customs have accelerated the evolutionary process of humans becoming more cooperative.Jonathan R Goodman, Researcher, Human Evolutionary Studies, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2096192023-07-13T17:20:12Z2023-07-13T17:20:12ZWant to collaborate better? Pick your partner wisely and learn how to read them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537261/original/file-20230713-17-vpmcde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=62%2C7%2C5114%2C3422&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We've all been there...</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-putting-together-self-assembly-furniture-165133466">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever tried to build IKEA furniture with your partner only for it to go horribly wrong? How about planning a wedding or other big party and realising you have wildly different visions of the event? </p>
<p>In my research, I investigate what it takes to successfully work together as a pair. And as reported in my new paper, <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001268">published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition</a> , deciphering what other people are thinking is crucial when it comes to communication and cooperation. </p>
<p>When people at a dinner party find out I’m a psychology researcher, it’s only a matter of time until someone asks if I can read their mind. They say this with a wink and a nudge – and they laugh it off. But humans do have “mind-reading” abilities. This ability to read other people’s mental states is known as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/theory-of-mind">“theory of mind”</a>.</p>
<p>What this really involves is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes – predicting their actions and reading their emotions. And my research shows that great collaboration requires both partners to be good at this.</p>
<h2>Experimental setup</h2>
<p>In my study, I measured theory of mind (aka mind-reading abilities) using a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-006-0107-0">well known assessment</a>. Over 400 participants watched video clips and were asked questions about the mental states and emotions of the characters. The more questions participants got right on this test, the higher their theory of mind abilities. </p>
<p>I paired participants up and they joined a Zoom call (I conducted my research during the pandemic) with me, the experimenter. During the Zoom call, the two participants completed a communication game together. Each participant, or player, had a subset of visual clues – such as arrows, shapes or Greek letters – on their screen. But they couldn’t see the other player’s screen.</p>
<p>The players had to communicate about their different sets of clues, then combine them together to solve a puzzle task. This required one player to verbally describe a set of symbols to the other, who then had to find these symbols on their screen among many others and tell the initial player which order to click them. The roles of the players alternated throughout the experiment.</p>
<p>Participants were challenged by a whole series of these tasks. If they managed to complete the game within the time limit, they were successful. If they couldn’t solve it in time or made a mistake, they were unsuccessful. Their combined score across these tasks formed the measure of their cooperation ability.</p>
<p>I found that the mind-reading abilities of both players predicted how well they would cooperate with one another. Pairs in which both players had high theory of mind abilities cooperated better compared to pairs where both players have low theory of mind abilities.</p>
<p>So, when you are trying to cooperate with someone, pick your partner wisely. Even if you have excellent mind-reading abilities yourself, it will be advantageous for you to cooperate with someone who also scores highly. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Business people on seminar training discussing in pairs making tasks together using laptops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537262/original/file-20230713-25-fn0yq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pick your collaborators carefully.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-people-on-seminar-training-discussing-2259101721">Studio Romantic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers have previously linked mind-reading abilities and intelligence (more precisely “<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/jan/brain-area-necessary-fluid-intelligence-identified">fluid intelligence</a>”, which is about problem solving and reasoning. So, isn’t it the case that cooperation levels simply depend on how intelligent you are? </p>
<p>I couldn’t leave this question unanswered, so I also tested scores for fluid intelligence. I found that fluid intelligence was not enough to explain the cooperation scores. Above and beyond fluid intelligence, it is the mind-reading abilities that drive cooperation skills. </p>
<h2>Improving cooperation in everyday life</h2>
<p>My study is a stepping stone for future research that focuses on improving cooperative behaviours in children and adults. Several previous studies have shown that mind-reading abilities can be improved through training programmes (often aimed at children as this is when theory of mind abilities develop) or older adults (as theory of mind abilities decline with ageing).</p>
<p>For example, a study found that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15248372.2011.573514">one year of acting</a> – compared with one year of other arts training – enhanced theory of mind abilities in children. Another such intervention study among older adults showed that training people to have conversations about mental states – as opposed to about physical states – <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167494314001800">improved theory of mind skills</a>.</p>
<p>If better mind-reading leads to better cooperation, mind-reading training should be employed in work places and educational settings. While schools commonly involve group work, theory of mind training may further help improve academic and social outcomes for children by way of ultimately improving their cooperation skills. </p>
<p>And that should come in handy throughout life – whether you’re facing a challenging work task or just some weekend DIY with your partner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roksana Markiewicz has received funding from the Hilary Green studentship</span></em></p>‘Mind-reading’ requires the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, predicting their actions and reading their emotions.Roksana Markiewicz, PhD candidate in Psychology/ Neuroscience, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2054982023-05-31T13:28:36Z2023-05-31T13:28:36ZWest African countries show how working together over decades builds peace and stops wars breaking out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528872/original/file-20230529-17-fnjtie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From left; Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire Patrick Achi, President of Togo Faure Gnassingbe, President of Benin Patrice Talon, and President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nipah Dennis/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa is often portrayed as a continent ravaged by war, terrorism, poverty and political instability. But over the past five decades few violent conflicts have occurred between states. In Europe, for comparison, there have been more than 25 inter-state conflicts since 1945. </p>
<p>It’s true that Africa has seen <a href="https://projects.voanews.com/african-coups/">214</a> coups, the most of any region; 106 have been successful. Out of <a href="https://projects.voanews.com/african-coups/">54 countries</a> on the African continent, 45 have had at least one coup attempt since 1950. </p>
<p>West Africa, a region of 16 independent states, has <a href="https://projects.voanews.com/african-coups">experienced</a> 53 successful and 40 failed coups since 1950. There are also cross-border security challenges such as terrorism, banditry, piracy and the wide presence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/west-africa-has-a-small-weapons-crisis-why-some-countries-are-better-at-dealing-with-it-than-others-203085">arms</a>. </p>
<p>But, since independence in the late 1950s, the region’s countries have not gone to war with one another – <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/case/69">except</a> for a minor armed confrontation between Burkina Faso and Mali in 1985.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10246029.2023.2193165">recent paper</a> we explored the possible reasons for this. As scholars studying the political dynamics of west Africa, we arrived at our insights by analysing historical data, diplomatic interactions and scholarly research. </p>
<p>We found evidence that the principles of non-aggression and peaceful settlement of disputes defined the relationships between west African countries. The 15 states under the <a href="https://ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Revised-treaty-1.pdf">umbrella</a> of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) positively identify with the fate of others in the bloc. The regional body was formed in 1975 by west African countries seeking to promote economic development. </p>
<p>We found a strong correlation between decades of regional cooperation and the rarity of conflicts between states in west Africa.</p>
<p>We conclude that systemic cooperation between states in the region has led to a collective identity forming over time. A sense of community has developed. The community has developed conflict management mechanisms. This has prevented members from going into war. </p>
<p>This finding highlights the importance of collaboration and diplomacy in maintaining peace and resolving conflicts. </p>
<h2>Making sense of the ECOWAS peace</h2>
<p>Regional dynamics and historical factors shape conflict, as can be seen in the Horn of Africa. That region has witnessed conflicts between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and between Ethiopia and Somalia, for example.</p>
<p>In the west African region, we found that the security arrangements agreed under ECOWAS have helped to foster peace between states. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Revised-treaty-1.pdf">ECOWAS agreement</a> was updated in 1993. It includes principles that were absent in the earlier pact. Among them are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>solidarity and collective self-reliance </p></li>
<li><p>non-aggression between member states </p></li>
<li><p>promotion and strengthening of good neighbourliness to maintain regional peace, stability and security </p></li>
<li><p>peaceful settlement of disputes among member states</p></li>
<li><p>active cooperation between neighbouring countries </p></li>
<li><p>promotion of a peaceful environment as a prerequisite for economic development.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This has led to west African countries choosing peaceful dispute resolution over sovereignty. For example, a <a href="https://foleyhoag.com/news-and-insights/news/2017/september/ghana-wins-maritime-boundary-dispute-against-cote-divoire/">border dispute</a> between Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire was settled in 2017 through an international tribunal. This approach has prevented violent conflicts. </p>
<p>A key factor is that member states have mechanisms for settling disputes peacefully. In both <a href="http://www.peacebuildingdata.org/research/liberia/results/civil-war/root-causes-civil-war">Liberia’s</a> and <a href="http://peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/Sierraleone.pdf">Sierra Leone’s</a> wars, which threatened to engulf other countries in the region, ECOWAS used these settlement mechanisms. It deployed military troops to supervise <a href="https://www.accord.org.za/ajcr-issues/peace-agreements-and-the-termination-of-civil-wars/">ceasefires brokered</a> by the then Ghanaian <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-ghanaians-hate-him-some-love-him-the-mixed-legacy-of-jerry-john-rawlings-163310">president, Jerry Rawlings</a>.</p>
<p>Another factor is what in our study we call pan-West Africanism. We describe this as a regional version of pan-Africanism that emphasises unity and collaboration among countries. In practice it has facilitated trade, cultural exchanges and diplomatic collaborations. It has also created a sense of shared identity and solidarity among member countries. </p>
<p>We argue that the idea of pan-West Africanism has promoted regional solidarity and reduced the possibility of violence in inter-state relations. It is not just a philosophy, but a practical approach to regional integration and cooperation. </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Our paper supports the argument that systemic cooperation among states can lead to a collective identity forming over time.</p>
<p>This has happened with the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Their collective identities are based on norms that reflect the history and political cultures of their member states.</p>
<p>The importance of shared identity and peaceful coexistence is often overlooked in explaining complex international relations. But it’s essential in understanding the relations of west African states.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abubakar Abubakar Usman is a research fellow with International Islamic University Malaysia Institute of Islamic Banking and Finance (IIiBF) and affiliated with the Asia Middle East Centre for Research and Dialogue (AMEC). </span></em></p>Africa has been relatively peaceful in terms of inter-state violent conflicts.Abubakar Abubakar Usman, Researcher, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1921972023-02-05T08:07:30Z2023-02-05T08:07:30ZNigeria and Ghana are prone to devastating floods - they could achieve a lot by working together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504267/original/file-20230112-20-2v82ez.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A flooded street in Lagos, Nigeria</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many countries in Africa suffer from disasters annually, but the adverse effects are grossly under-reported compared with coverage of more developed nations. </p>
<p>The impact of these disasters is also more severe in developing countries because they have less capacity to adapt and cope.</p>
<p>Flooding is the most widespread and recurrent disaster worldwide. In 2021 alone, flooding caused 4,393 deaths and US$137.7 billion in <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/2021-global-natural-disaster-assessment-report#:%7E:text=Global%20%EF%AC%82ood%20disasters%20in%202021,disasters%20were%20the%20largest%2C%20reaching">direct economic losses</a>. Losses and deaths due to flooding have steadily increased over the years and will continue to rise if the current trajectory continues. In Africa, flooding is mostly caused by human factors. This includes poor spatial planning, lack of infrastructure and poor waste management. </p>
<p>The United Nations has <a href="https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals?utm_source=EN&utm_medium=GSR&utm_content=US_UNDP_PaidSearch_Brand_English&utm_campaign=CENTRAL&c_src=CENTRAL&c_src2=GSR&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_P6dBhD1ARIsAAGI7HAUTNtuF7AODa0CoioiNuVNe9IOUDjIp58Cy11eDicCPnNi5WDSSO0aAsRxEALw_wcB">called</a> for global partnerships to achieve its sustainable development goals: no poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, sustainable cities and communities. Flooding has a direct negative impact on these goals. </p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2021.2004742">paper</a> I looked at how Ghana and Nigeria could work as partners on this issue. </p>
<p>These two West African countries are prone to flooding. Though they don’t share a common boundary, they face similar issues in managing flooding disasters. Both have acknowledged their risks and have welcomed disaster risk reduction initiatives. They have both signed the <a href="https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/what-sendai-framework">Sendai Framework for Partnership on Disaster Risk Reduction</a>.</p>
<p>My findings show a need to go back to the drawing board, given the severity and frequency of flooding, and to build capacity cooperatively. </p>
<p>The study identifies opportunities for cross-border cooperation geared towards finding solutions to problems that have similar root causes, especially among countries of similar profiles. </p>
<h2>The cases of Nigeria and Ghana</h2>
<p>Flooding in both Nigeria and Ghana is caused by a combination of two factors. The first is socio-political – unplanned urbanisation, inadequate drainage systems and waste management and poor physical planning. The second is changing climatic <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/west-africas-deadly-rainfall-in-2022-made-80-times-more-likely-by-climate-change/">factors</a> such as higher rainfall. </p>
<p>Nigeria is home to Africa’s largest population (over 200 million). A significant proportion of the population is vulnerable to flooding. Annual flooding causes displacements and deaths, though precise figures are lacking. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-floods-are-the-worst-in-a-decade-heres-how-people-try-to-cope-with-the-devastation-192781">Nigeria's floods are the worst in a decade. Here's how people try to cope with the devastation</a>
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<p>Little has been done by the authorities to mitigate the hazard. This is clear from the fact that the country doesn’t have a concrete policy on flooding or a national flood risk management framework. Addressing and reducing exposure to flood risk is listed as a national priority in the government’s disaster risk-management <a href="https://www.gfdrr.org/sites/default/files/publication/NIGERIA_PDNA_PRINT_05_29_2013_WEB.pdf">agenda</a> but no significant action has been taken. </p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20964129.2020.1791735">evidence</a> suggests the flooding in Nigeria can be controlled through a suitable risk management strategy and implementation. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/floods-in-nigeria-building-dams-and-planting-trees-among-steps-that-should-be-taken-to-curb-the-damage-192750">Floods in Nigeria: building dams and planting trees among steps that should be taken to curb the damage</a>
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<p>The absence of preventive action points to a lack of political will. </p>
<p>Another hindrance is a lack of co-ordination between bodies that are meant to deal with disasters. Take the National Emergency Management Agency, for instance. The law doesn’t give it enough power to ensure integration among the different institutions working in flood risk management and disaster risk reduction.</p>
<p>Ghana has similar problems. Authorities have been blamed for not doing enough to mitigate recurrent flooding. The country’s laws and policies concerned with flooding, like the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1573062X.2016.1176223">Blue Agenda</a> and the <a href="https://www.gwcl.com.gh/national_water_policy.pdf">National Water Policy</a>, have been <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jfr3.12664">criticised</a> as inadequate and poorly implemented. </p>
<p>The National Water Policy is the primary programme aimed at integrating water-resources management. It encompasses measures directed at mitigating floods via early warning and establishing buffer zones. The Blue Agenda focuses on development control, public education, provision of drainage, and flood-control initiatives in urban communities. </p>
<p>But these policies have failed to achieve the desired results of adequately managing flood risk. </p>
<h2>Collaboration offers a solution</h2>
<p>The similar underlying drivers of flooding in Nigeria and Ghana present an opportunity for collaboration in research and data sharing. This could be in the areas of:</p>
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<li><p>assessing risks </p></li>
<li><p>reporting procedures (perhaps involving citizen scientists) </p></li>
<li><p>monitoring and warning services. </p></li>
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<p>Others include improving flood risk and hazard information dissemination and building capabilities for mitigation and sustainable response strategies. </p>
<p>The countries could also collaborate to collect better flood data. Research is key to providing hydrological data, modelling information, flood warning, risk analysis, simulation, forecasting and adaptation. </p>
<p>Funding such intensive research will be more expensive for the two countries if they do it individually. Cooperation and sharing costs could free up resources for putting plans into practice. </p>
<p>Finally, institutional tools in the form of policies and legislation for managing flooding are poorly defined and deficient in both countries. It is important to co-operatively share data on exposures, vulnerabilities, and hazards. Such data can inform flood-risk assessment and response and enable both countries to learn from each other and previous mistakes. </p>
<p>A framework that outlines how the countries will work together would help to avoid any problems in sharing knowledge. Successful cooperation could set the path for the involvement of other West African countries that suffer flooding to work together, as has been done among <a href="https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/13d0cc-eu-flood-directive/">some of the countries</a> in the European Union.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adaku Jane Echendu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The two West African countries can help each other avert flooding disasters.Adaku Jane Echendu, Researcher, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1958102023-01-31T13:16:07Z2023-01-31T13:16:07ZMicrobes in your food can help or hinder your body’s defenses against cancer – how diet influences the conflict between cell ‘cooperators’ and ‘cheaters’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506674/original/file-20230126-31491-80kf4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1731%2C1731&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You can change your gut microbiome composition by eating different foods.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bacteria-and-germs-on-food-royalty-free-image/596371624">wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The microbes living in your food can affect your risk of cancer. While some help your body fight cancer, others help tumors evolve and grow. </p>
<p>Gut microbes can influence your cancer risk by changing how your cells behave. Many cancer-protective microbes support normal, cooperative behavior of cells. Meanwhile, cancer-inducing microbes undermine cellular cooperation and increase your risk of cancer in the process. </p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8abR970AAAAJ&hl=en">evolutionary</a> <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/2854856">biologists</a> who study how cooperation and conflict occur inside the human body, including the ways cancer can evolve to exploit the body. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-022-00420-5">systematic review</a> examines how diet and the microbiome affect the ways the cells in your body interact with each other and either increase or decrease your risk of cancer.</p>
<h2>Cancer is a breakdown of cell cooperation</h2>
<p>Every human body is a symphony of multicellular cooperation. <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-bodies-replace-billions-of-cells-every-day/">Thirty trillion cells</a> cooperate and coordinate with each other to make us viable multicellular organisms. </p>
<p>For multicellular cooperation to work, cells must engage in behaviors that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12303">serve the collective</a>. These include controlled cell division, proper cell death, resource sharing, division of labor and protection of the extracellular environment. Multicellular cooperation is what allows the body to function effectively. If genetic mutations interfere with these proper behaviors, they can lead to the breakdown of cellular cooperation and the emergence of cancer.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The food in your diet affects the composition of your gut microbiome.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Cancer cells can be thought of as <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691163840/the-cheating-cell">cellular cheaters</a> because they do not follow the rules of cooperative behavior. They mutate uncontrollably, evade cell death and take up excessive resources at the expense of the other cells. As these cheater cells replicate, cancer in the body begins to grow.</p>
<p>Cancer is fundamentally a problem of having multiple cells living together in one organism. As such, it has been around <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0219">since the origins of multicellular life</a>. This means that cancer suppression mechanisms have been evolving for hundreds of millions of years to help keep would-be cancer cells in check. Cells monitor themselves for mutations and induce cell death, also known as apoptosis, when necessary. Cells also monitor their neighbors for evidence of abnormal behavior, sending signals to aberrant cells to induce apoptosis. In addition, the body’s immune system monitors tissues for cancer cells to destroy them.</p>
<p>Cells that are able to evade detection, avoid apoptosis and replicate quickly have an evolutionary advantage within the body over cells that behave normally. This process within the body, called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0020108">somatic evolution</a>, is what leads cancer cells to grow and make people sick.</p>
<h2>Microbes can help or hinder cell cooperation</h2>
<p>Microbes can affect cancer risk through changing the ways that the cells of the body interact with one another. </p>
<p>Some microbes can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-019-0257-2">protect against cancer</a> by helping maintain a healthy environment in the gut, reducing inflammation and DNA damage, and even by directly limiting tumor growth. Cancer-protective microbes like <em>Lactobacillus pentosus</em>, <em>Lactobacillus gasseri</em> and <em>Bifidobacterium bifidum</em> are found in the environment and different foods, and can live in the gut. These microbes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-022-00420-5">promote cooperation among cells</a> and limit the function of cheating cells by strengthening the body’s cancer defenses. <em>Lactobacillus acidophilus</em>, for example, increases the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007114510000516">production of a protein called IL-12</a> that stimulates immune cells to act against tumors and suppress their growth.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gut bacteria can influence the effectiveness of certain cancer treatments.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Other microbes can promote cancer by inducing mutations in healthy cells that make it more likely for cellular cheaters to emerge and outcompete cooperative cells. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/path.5047">Cancer-inducing microbes</a> such as <em>Enterococcus faecalis</em>, <em>Helicobacter pylori</em> and <em>Papillomavirus</em> are associated with increased tumor burden and cancer progression. They can release toxins that damage DNA, change gene expression and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-019-0257-2">increase the proliferation</a> of tumor cells. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.23484"><em>Helicobacter pylori</em></a>, for example, can induce cancer by secreting a protein called Tipα that can penetrate cells, alter their gene expression and drive gastric cancer.</p>
<h2>Healthy diet with cancer-protective microbes</h2>
<p>Because what you eat determines the amount of cancer-inducing and cancer-preventing microbes inside your body, we believe that the microbes we consume and cultivate are an important component of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-022-00420-5">a healthy diet</a>.</p>
<p>Beneficial microbes are typically found in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.31959">fermented</a> and plant-based diets, which include foods like vegetables, fruits, yogurt and whole grains. These foods have high nutritional value and contain microbes that increase the immune system’s ability to fight cancer and lower overall inflammation. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fcdn%2Fnzy005">High-fiber foods are prebiotic</a> in the sense that they provide resources that help beneficial microbes thrive and subsequently provide benefits for their hosts. Many cancer-fighting microbes are abundantly present in fermented and high-fiber foods. </p>
<p>In contrast, harmful microbes can be found in highly-processed and meat-based diets. The Western diet, for example, contains an abundance of red and processed meats, fried food and high-sugar foods. It has been long known that meat-based diets are linked to higher cancer prevalence, and that red meat is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2018.718">carcinogen</a>. Studies have shown that meat-based diets are associated with cancer-inducing microbes including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-022-00420-5"><em>Fusobacteria</em> and <em>Peptostreptococcus</em></a> in both humans and other species.</p>
<p>Microbes can enhance or interfere with how the body’s cells cooperate to prevent cancer. We believe that purposefully cultivating a microbiome that promotes cooperation among our cells can help reduce cancer risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gissel Viridiana Marquez Alcaraz receives funding from the National Cancer Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Athena Aktipis receives funding from the National Cancer Institute and the John Templeton Foundation.</span></em></p>Cancer cells are ‘cheaters’ that do not cooperate with the rest of the body. Certain microbes in your diet can either protect against or promote tumor formation by influencing cell cooperation.Gissel Marquez Alcaraz, Ph.D. Student in Evolutionary Biology, Arizona State UniversityAthena Aktipis, Associate Professor of Psychology, Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839252022-06-20T14:28:32Z2022-06-20T14:28:32ZWest African borders have got firmer with EU help: what it means for local interests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466935/original/file-20220603-16-pfzxex.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The border crossing into Togo from Benin is a busy route for citizens</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>European and African states have been working together closely on migration since the early 2000s. The cooperation aims to “harden” West African borders – tighten them to deter mobility. The EU’s interests in this cooperation are clear. It wants to prevent migration to Europe by stopping it where it starts. </p>
<p>As a result, a security focus is evident in West African regional policy agendas. It is also evident in cooperation initiatives to build border infrastructure are numerous. </p>
<p>African states themselves have sent <a href="https://www.asileproject.eu/eu-external-migration-management-policies-in-west-africa/">clear signals</a> that they are willing – even enthusiastic – to work with international donors in border management. This includes actively proposing projects and sourcing funds. </p>
<p>Yet this “hard border” project takes place in a region where migration as a practice has a long history and is also an accepted part of modern life. The regional integration agenda under the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is widely <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2021.1972564">considered the most developed on the continent</a>. It aims to promote the economic, social and cultural integration of its member states. Freedom of mobility in the ECOWAS region is central to this agenda, though it has long been hampered by challenges such as harassment at borders and corruption. </p>
<p>Scholars have raised <a href="https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/72355">concerns</a> that a security focus will undermine efforts to address these implementation challenges, and to improve mobility and integration in the region. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2022.2065160">My research in Senegal and Ghana</a> seeks to understand this apparent contradiction. Why do West African states cooperate with the EU and international donors in ways that could undermine regional integration? </p>
<p>By analysing the domestic policy context in these countries, my research shows that governments benefit from security cooperation. They get access to funds that can help modernise bureaucratic systems and strengthen the administrative capacity of government ministries.</p>
<p>But there is a risk that policies that focus on who “belongs” within a border will become legitimised through security cooperation with international donors. This could make ECOWAS migrants’ situations more precarious. They might for instance be unable to access the social services in other West African countries that they are entitled to. </p>
<h2>Regional integration history</h2>
<p>Rigid borders and mass deportations were popular migration policies of newly independent African states in the 1960s and 1970s. At the time, African states were grappling with several economic crises. Migrants often were scapegoated and many were expelled. For example, citizens of Nigeria, Togo and Benin were <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1983.tb00457.x">deported</a> from Ghana in the late 1960s. </p>
<p>Thanks to the <a href="http://ecowasmigration.ug.edu.gh/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ECOWAS-1979-Protocol-Relating-to-Free-Movement-of-Persons-Residence-and-Establishment.pdf">1979 protocol on free movement of persons</a>, restrictions and mass deportations have become uncommon. The protocol confers the right to enter and live in the territory of any member state, if you have a valid travel document and international health certificate.</p>
<p>But the agenda of the EU has the effect of making borders less permeable.</p>
<p>International donors <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-the-eu-spent-billions-to-halt-migration-from-africa/a-61362906">fund</a> security in West African states in the form of military assistance, technical equipment and financial support. </p>
<p>For example, EU funds assist the Senegalese authorities with their <a href="https://www.civipol.fr/en/projects/senegal-support-programme-strengthen-civil-registration-information-system-and">civil registration system reform</a>. This helps the Senegalese state to address important domestic governance challenges such as document fraud.</p>
<p>Both the Senegalese and Ghanaian administrations have also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17502977.2022.2065160">expressed</a> a strong interest in having more data available on migration to aid planning. At the moment, much of the data that is available on migration is provided by international organisations. These include the International Organisation for Migration. </p>
<p>This reliance on an outside organisation for statistics to inform government policy is perceived negatively by domestic actors such as governments and civil society organisations.</p>
<h2>The West African protocol</h2>
<p>As African states increase their participation in this form of migration governance, there is a clear risk of overshadowing the West African protocol on the freedom of movement. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/closing-borders-with-its-neighbours-isnt-the-answer-nigeria-can-do-better-125583">Closing borders with its neighbours isn't the answer. Nigeria can do better</a>
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<p>However it is also clear that there is a lack of political will to fully implement it. There are, for instance, concerns among member states about the <a href="https://www.die-gdi.de/en/discussion-paper/article/the-influence-of-eu-migration-policy-on-regional-free-movement-in-the-igad-and-ecowas-regions/">economic impact</a> of full implementation. There are large economic and labour market disparities between member countries. This produces concerns about large influxes of immigrants from the region – such as the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021909619827036?journalCode=jasa">ongoing influx</a> of Nigerian immigrants to Ghana.</p>
<h2>Civil society advocacy</h2>
<p>The expansion of security cooperation has not gone unnoticed. My research shows there has been domestic criticism of expanded security cooperation in Senegal and Ghana. Civil society organisations have tried to counter the “hard border” project, although with limited success. </p>
<p>Civil society organisations report it’s difficult to get access to national policymakers. The Senegalese and Ghanaian governments selectively include these organisations in policy spheres. Organisations are also constrained in their activities by limited human and financial resources. This affects the extent of data collection and research they can undertake on any issue. </p>
<p>African governments have shown that they can use international concerns over the Sahel’s porous borders to their advantage. Security cooperation continues to expand, and forms an important component of EU-African cooperation on migration. African states and their development partners must ensure that regional integration efforts are not eroded as a result.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa received funding from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Hendrik Muller Fonds, and the University of Cambridge to conduct this research as part of her PhD at the Centre of Development Studies, Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), University of Cambridge.
Melissa works as a policy analyst at the OECD. The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not reflect those of the OECD or its Member countries.</span></em></p>African states and their development partners must protect ECOWAS regional integration efforts.Melissa Mouthaan, Researcher, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1827052022-05-30T13:25:20Z2022-05-30T13:25:20ZHow to express yourself if you want others to cooperate with you – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466008/original/file-20220530-26-np1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5176%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Be inclusive and informal.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-designers-having-meeting-around-table-352279544">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Collective action is often the key to creating dramatic social or environmental changes, be it <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling5010004">reducing pollution and waste</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-2979.2010.00372.x">diminishing overfishing</a> by sourcing alternatives, or getting more scientists <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2020.10.009">to openly share their data with others</a>.</p>
<p>Collective action, however, can involve social dilemmas. That’s because the choice to act altruistically might come at some personal cost. To deal with such problems, cooperation and communication are key. Now our new research, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10434631221094555">published in Rationality and Society</a>, sheds some light on the best way to get people to cooperate in such situations.</p>
<p>In the world of economics, decisions about cooperation are often studied in laboratory games such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.12.009">prisoner’s dilemma</a> or the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012563421824">public goods game</a>. The public goods game is one of the best examples of a cooperative set up: participants have to secretly choose how many of their private tokens to put into a public pot, which everyone can benefit from. </p>
<p>The interesting aspect of the cooperative situation in this game, and many others, is that it exposes each member of a group to uncertainty, which is the fundamental source of the social dilemma. Even if an individual member might cooperate by sharing their resources, they can’t be sure if anyone else will. So, if you cooperate you are taking a chance, meaning the first move to cooperate can be viewed as altruistic. </p>
<p>It might be disappointing to realise that others might not cooperate. This may prompt some to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2727(88)90043-6">opt instead to free-load</a>, which is to cooperate less or not at all, but still benefit from the potential cooperative actions of others. The first move to do so is viewed as selfish by scientists.</p>
<p>So what do people typically do in such situations? It depends what other factors people take into account, for instance the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2018.1463225">social status they have in the group,</a> as well as the type of resources they are giving up.</p>
<p>In reality, decisions of this kind are often made in situations that involve discussions with others. The communication aspect here <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-economics-080218-025730">can be crucial</a>. Communication helps group members to size up the intentions of the others, and gives them a chance to persuade their peers to act cooperatively. </p>
<p>However, this presents another form of uncertainty. We know that people don’t always do as they say. For instance, they might be virtue signalling – talking in ways that promote themselves as virtuous and reputable, without actually intending to cooperate. </p>
<h2>Talk is cheap</h2>
<p>To look at the effects of communication on cooperation, we assigned 90 people to groups of five. Each member of the group had to perform a task which was tied to money – squeezing a hand grip device multiple times to get a small reward each time. </p>
<p>Each member of the group had a choice to make: either keep the money for themselves each time (free ride), or contribute it to the group pot (cooperate). Whatever money was in the group pot each time was multiplied by 1.5 – so half more than what could be earned individually.</p>
<p>Two other important elements of the experimental set up helped us to understand more precisely the influence of communication on cooperative behaviour. </p>
<p>Participants had to choose whether to cooperate under specific sets of circumstances. In the “possible virtue signaling” condition, each member had to state before they performed the task how many times they intended to share money they had earned, and were told that this information would be communicated to the rest of the group. In the “money in your mouth” condition, each member was told that the actual number of times they shared the money would be communicated to the rest of the group. In the “flying blind” condition, however, no information was communicated to the rest of the group. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of two people shaking hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466015/original/file-20220530-14-frioj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friendliness helps.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-african-american-businesswoman-advisor-broker-1746124625">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once every member of the group had performed the actual task, all five members entered into a group chat online where they could discuss the task, and the information (at least for two conditions) that was presented to them. After the group chat, they then performed the task again, and were each paid the amount that they had personally earned, as well as the amount earned by the group. </p>
<h2>So what happened?</h2>
<p>People were much more likely to cooperate during the “possible virtue signaling” and the “money in your mouth” conditions than in the “flying blind” condition. So, knowing that your intentions or actions would be passed on to the group made a difference. But how much of a difference was determined by what was discussed in the group chat.</p>
<p>There was a direct relationship between how much the group reached a consensus to cooperate, and how much they actually cooperated. In other words, when people said things that helped the group reach a consensus, they ended up acting cooperatively. </p>
<p>Our study suggests that avoiding phrases that indicate hedging and equivocation helps people cooperate. Being vague about the extent of your intended contribution, “I’ll give more next time”, and offering conditional contributions, “I’ll give more if everyone else does”, will fosters mistrust within your group and reduce people’s sense of obligation. Ultimately, this will hinder the group’s ability to reach an agreement to cooperate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a transcript from the discussing in the experiment." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462014/original/file-20220509-13-ditbyc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Transcript of cooperative discussion from the experiment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A better approach, as can be seen in the example above, is to be explicit and specific with the promises you make about your contribution. It’s also important to pose a direct question to the entire group which asks about everyone’s intended contribution. This encourages each member to make a commitment, and if someone evades the question, it’s a useful signal. </p>
<p>The communication styles we use can also make a difference. Speaking in a way that signals solidarity and authority will strengthen the group’s collective identity and establish a norm to cooperate. Humour and warmth help too. On the other hand, we found that groups that used more formal and self-interested communication styles, such as those associated with the world of business and politics, were less cooperative.</p>
<p>In short, showing strong leadership through assertive statements, expressing encouragement through motivational phrases, and making people feel part of your group are good first steps in getting others to cooperate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182705/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magda Osman receives funding from: ESRC, Research England, British Academy, EPSRC, Wellcome Trust, Food Standards Agency, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Alan Turing.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devyani Sharma works for Queen Mary University of London. She receives funding from the ESRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Adams receives funding from: ESRC and Queen Mary University of London </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Agata Ludwiczak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Communication helps group members to size up the intentions of the others.Magda Osman, Principal Research Associate in Basic and Applied Decision Making, Cambridge Judge Business SchoolAgata Ludwiczak, Assistant professor of Psychology, University of GreenwichDevyani Sharma, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Queen Mary University of LondonZoe Adams, Post-doctoral researcher in Sociolinguistics, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804782022-04-11T12:14:43Z2022-04-11T12:14:43ZGreat white sharks occasionally hunt in pairs – new research sheds light on social behavior of these mysterious predators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457187/original/file-20220408-20-xvfjtz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C240%2C3178%2C2484&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Great white sharks are not normally thought of as social creatures.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yannis Papastamatiou</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sitting anchored to the rocky reef 70 feet (21 meters) below the surface of the ocean, hundreds of scalloped hammerhead sharks swam above me in unison, moving as if one. When most people think of sharks, they don’t think of them as social creatures. The schooling hammerhead sharks above my head were a striking example of shark social groups, a topic that has not been the subject of much exploration.</p>
<p>I am <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qudaP1wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">a marine biologist</a> and <a href="https://www.peclabfiu.com/">study the behavior of predators</a>. For the last 22 years, my research has focused on sharks.</p>
<p>Biologists have long known that some sharks – like hammerheads – are social creatures, but whether great white sharks interact with each other while hunting, and if so, how, is still a mystery. Since 2014, my colleagues and I have visited the beautiful Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico to try to find out. Using state of the art technology, we have been able to gain a better understanding of the secret social lives of these top predators.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4BdjxYUdJS8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Some creatures, like ants, form highly complex social systems based around cooperation, but there are many levels of social behavior.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes a social animal?</h2>
<p>A social animal is one that interacts and spends time with other individuals of the same species. While nearly all animals show some degree of sociality – when they mate, for example – social behaviors can range from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-802213-9.00002-X">solitary snow leopards</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1996.tb04492.x">highly social ant colonies</a>.</p>
<p>When people think of social predators, most probably picture a pack of wolves hunting in an organized, cooperative group. But social behavior can be much simpler than that. An animal may simply decide to stay in close proximity to another individual because it has learned that if its “colleague” locates some prey, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0245-0">its own chances of getting a meal increase</a>. </p>
<p>The sharing of information – the location of prey – in this example is inadvertent. The first predator wasn’t purposefully alerting the second predator to the presence of a meal. But under the right conditions, this type of basic social interaction can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005147">increase the success of both animals’ hunting</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C267%2C3435%2C2402&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A shark in the ocean." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C267%2C3435%2C2402&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457186/original/file-20220408-21-fnnh0j.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Great white sharks were historically seen as individualistic hunters, but previous research hinted at social behaviors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yannis Papastamatiou</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hints of a social shark</h2>
<p>White sharks travel to seal colonies <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps07628">during the seal’s breeding seasons</a> in the summer and fall. Sharks generally hunt by patrolling the waters adjacent to seal colonies and ambush seals at the surface. </p>
<p>In 2001, researchers in California published a paper describing how white sharks patrolling a seal colony at Año Nuevo Island would <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270000489">remain within “eavesdropping” distance of each other</a>. The biologists suggested that if one shark killed a marine mammal, other, nearby sharks would register this information and quickly approach the site of the kill, perhaps hoping to eat from the remains of the prey. While the sharks may not be cooperating, they can still potentially benefit by hanging out with each other.</p>
<p>Further studies on white shark behavior in Australia took this a step further. Researchers found that white sharks would often turn up at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-019-2745-1">cage diving sites with the same individuals</a> time and time again. The fact that white sharks not only stay close to each other but also have preferred buddies got me wondering if maybe these animals were more social than people thought.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of a large island from the sea with clouds spilling over." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457191/original/file-20220408-42486-1pet9o.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guadalupe Island off the northwestern coast of Mexico is home to a number of seal colonies, and great white sharks are regular visitors in fall and winter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yannis Papastamatiou</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How to tag a great white shark</h2>
<p>Guadalupe Island is located about 150 miles (240 km) west of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Every fall, at least <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74294-4">100 white sharks arrive at the island to feed</a> on Guadalupe fur seals, California sea lions, squid and tuna. In 2014, I reached out to my friend and colleague, <a href="https://www.pelagioskakunja.org/dr-mauricio-hoyos">Mauricio Hoyos-Padilla</a>, who has been tagging white sharks at Guadalupe for over 15 years, to see if he was interested in studying white shark social behavior. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large, yellow rectangular piece of technology." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457189/original/file-20220408-25011-u2csvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The social tag can detect nearby sharks with transmitters, allowing researchers to see when sharks were near each other.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yannis Papastamatiou</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To do this, we developed a new electronic tag that we call the “social tag.” It has sensors that can detect simple acoustic transmitters that we attached to other sharks, allowing us to see which sharks hang out with each other and for how long. The social tags also include a video camera and motion sensors that can track how fast the shark is swimming and how deep it is.</p>
<p>Starting in 2017, I would head to Guadalupe every year for about a week to try to tag sharks with Mauricio and his students from the nonprofit research organization <a href="https://www.pelagioskakunja.org">Pelagios-Kakunja</a>. Sometimes we would tag sharks from the safety of cages, but more often we would free dive with them. We would use bait to attract a shark to the boat and when one appeared, three or four taggers would jump into the crystal clear water. We would then wait for one of these large sharks to get curious and swim within a few feet of us. When that happened, we would use a long pole to clamp the tag onto the dorsal fin of the shark.</p>
<p>Over three years of successful tagging, we deployed our social tags on three male and three female sharks and tagged another 37 individuals with acoustic transmitters. The tags would stay on for one to five days before falling off and floating to the surface for the team to recover. In total, we collected over 312 hours of data from the six social tags.</p>
<h2>When sharks hang out</h2>
<p>Over the many hours of data that we collected, the sharks frequently came within 100 feet (30 meters) of other individuals. Many of these meetings were short and seemingly random – kind of like crossing paths with someone at a grocery store – but a few lasted longer and appeared to be true social interactions. We recorded five instances of these longer interactions, one of which lasted for over an hour. </p>
<p>We also found that individual sharks behaved quite differently from one another. Two of the tagged sharks were particularly social and associated with 12 and 16 other individuals, while two others appeared much less social, only crossing paths with only four and six other sharks respectively. The tags used on the final two sharks did not have working sensors on them, so we were not able to measure interactions.</p>
<p>Another interesting behavioral difference was that some sharks hunted in shallow waters and others hunted hundreds of meters deep.</p>
<p>Our new evidence suggests that white sharks are indeed social animals. Just as previous research suggested, our results fit with the idea that that the benefit of white shark sociality is that they can “eavesdrop” on other sharks. They can quickly acquire information such as a seal killed at depth by another shark, and this could end leading to an easy meal. However, there is so much more to learn. </p>
<p>Measuring sociality over months and over a year, as opposed to just days, would provide much deeper insights. When the sharks leave Guadalupe Island in the spring, they travel long distances across the open ocean – some swim as far as Hawaii. Do they travel together or by themselves? </p>
<p>The social lives of white sharks have been a secret hidden from researchers for decades. It took new technology and new research methods to see it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yannis Papastamatiou receives funding from Sharkproject International and Great White Mystery. </span></em></p>Researchers have discovered that great white sharks are more social than previously thought. Using specialized tags, they tracked six sharks and found that some stay close to each other when hunting.Yannis Papastamatiou, Professor of Biological Sciences, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1604052021-05-09T10:35:54Z2021-05-09T10:35:54ZAfter a year of Zoom meetings, we’ll need to rebuild trust through eye contact<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399502/original/file-20210507-23-13juth2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C185%2C3964%2C2425&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's virtually impossible to make and maintain eye contact during videoconferencing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(visuals/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The pandemic has exacerbated an already troubling trust deficit across political, economic and demographic divides.</p>
<p>Research shared just before the pandemic’s onset uncovered that <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html">millennials are reluctant to trust government, business leaders, corporations, social and mass media or even traditional social institutions</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a recent Canadian survey found that <a href="https://www.edelman.ca/trust-barometer/edelman-trust-barometer-2021">half of respondents believe business leaders are purposely trying to mislead them, and just under half believe the same about government</a>. The decline in trust is understandable, a predictable consequence of very real failures in leadership. </p>
<p>But something else is happening as well. The pandemic has forced most of us to move our lives on to screens. And as we get more comfortable hiding behind screens, rarely receiving and making eye contact, we are also handicapping our ability to trust.</p>
<p>Trust is the bedrock of civilization, and living through screens is taking a significant psychological toll. Researchers have found that real and direct eye contact <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13506280444000157">holds our attention</a>. </p>
<p>As psychologist Christian Jarrett explains, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190108-why-meeting-anothers-gaze-is-so-powerful">eye contact forces us to make sense of the fact that we are dealing with the mind of another person looking at us, and shapes our perception of that other who meets our gaze</a>. Perhaps most importantly for this context, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0162291">direct eye contact promotes trust</a> when folks are saying things that we’re not so sure about.</p>
<h2>Trust and puppetry</h2>
<p>Announcements of a Zoom-infused future — like recent news that Ontario schools boards must offer virtual learning as an option for <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-boards-must-offer-virtual-learning-as-option-for-entire-2021-22-school-year-ford-gov-t-says-1.5413676">the entire 2021-22 school year</a>, or that certain businesses are selling off their real estate and making <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2021/12/27/this-is-the-future-of-remote-work-in-2021/?sh=41a0d4f81e1d">a permanent shift to remote work </a> — are very worrisome.</p>
<p>In researching my book, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/connected-capitalism-2"><em>Connected Capitalism</em></a>, I watched <a href="http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=burkett%2C%20ronnie">award-winning puppeteer Ronnie Burkett</a> not only delight an audience, but call on them to perform essential tasks in the show, like adjust the lighting, music and act out supporting roles as amateur puppeteers.</p>
<p>When I asked Burkett how he got a diverse crowd of strangers to trust one another enough to work together in this unexpected manner, he attributed it to eye contact. He explained that we declare ourselves with eye contact. A gaze is like saying “I disagree with you but keep talking to me.” </p>
<p>Burkett’s eye contact invited attachment and a feeling of safety for the audience. But feeling safe doesn’t mean we aren’t expected to be active. It simply enforces the sense that we can trust our cooperative partners; that they have our best interests at heart even as we are challenged to push ourselves to do something novel.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cn6HYOJzwZM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ronnie Burkett talks about how audiences and puppets can interact in his shows.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Re-establishing trust</h2>
<p>And now, in the age of Zoom, it is challenging to find and maintain eye contact. This single most powerful tool for fostering trust and strengthening relationships has largely gone missing. So what can we do to fix it?</p>
<p>First, knowing all this, make an extra effort to engage in and receive eye contact in all of your off-screen, in-real-life interactions.</p>
<p>Second, compensate for the loss of this tool with an effort to project trustworthiness. Jay Barney, a professor in strategic management at the University of Utah, defines trustworthiness <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2486817">as the attribute of being worthy of the trust of others in not exploiting any adverse selection or moral hazard</a>. </p>
<p>What is the difference, then, between trust and trustworthiness? Trust is a mutual effort allowing an existing relationship to operate with minimal stress. Seeking to be seen as trustworthy, on the other hand, is an individual initiative directed at those who we have yet to meet. It need not be reciprocated to be valuable. And it will enable us to partially compensate for the trust deficit in the post-Zoom era as we re-enter the world to try and build connections.</p>
<p>Third, normalize friendship in spaces that need trust. Viewing friendship as, for example, a meaningful work resource may seem strange. But as social beings, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840615585340">we constantly engage in efforts to influence others</a> to collaborate or co-operate.</p>
<p>What motivates co-operation? Sometimes I co-operate with you because I believe that doing so is consistent with my principles, so trust is a secondary consideration.</p>
<p>But sometimes co-operation is born of a relational motivation, based on the need for identification through social relationships. This means that I choose to co-operate with you because I want and expect to establish or maintain a satisfying relationship with you, usually based on reciprocity. Here, trust looms large. And if I can’t stimulate it with eye contact, I can compensate with the language of friendship.</p>
<p>This notion may not sit well with some. But cutting-edge research demonstrates the decision to engage in pro-social behaviours <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4677">stems primarily from intuition</a>. When we co-operate, it’s not because we engaged in a deep analysis and calculated it as worthwhile. It’s actually because of feelings. Without eye contact, we need to boost these relational feelings with words.</p>
<p>Bottom line? Trust after Zoom will be tough. But projecting trustworthiness and friendship in places where we are used to being more transactional can help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160405/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Weitzner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Eye contact is essential for building and developing trust. But after more than a year of working and socializing online, our ability to make and maintain eye contact has been diminished.David Weitzner, Assistant professor, Administrative Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1572362021-04-07T06:55:18Z2021-04-07T06:55:18Z4 key areas of cooperation for growing Indonesia and Gulf countries partnership<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391880/original/file-20210326-23-2ql1aq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C40%2C1280%2C797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ongoing tension between the US and China should encourage Indonesia to strengthen ties with nontraditional partners, like the Gulf states.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://setkab.go.id/en/indonesia-lends-support-for-saudi-arabias-vision-2030/">Sekretariat Kabinet Republik Indonesia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing tension between the United States and China should encourage Indonesia to find ways to reduce reliance on the two great powers. It can start by looking to strengthen political and security ties with non-traditional partners. </p>
<p>Tensions with the US have led to China growing increasingly assertive in Southeast Asia and distrust of the US as a security partner is on the rise. Economic ties between the Chinese and American economies may be in decline, which could mean higher US tariffs on China, and vice versa. </p>
<p>As some have argued, growing protectionism in the two countries would also disrupt broader Southeast Asian access to the US market.</p>
<p>A decoupling of China and US relations could also lead to different trading blocs; one led by China and another led by the US.</p>
<p>This prospect could complicate life for Indonesian companies when conducting business with or investing in China and the US. They will need to take political factors into consideration.</p>
<p>The Gulf could serve as a gateway for Indonesia to move away from the orbits of China and the US. It also provides a potentially lucrative market and investment partner.</p>
<p>In this relationship, the Gulf is represented by the <a href="https://www.gcc-sg.org/en-us/AboutGCC/MemberStates/pages/Home.aspx">Gulf Cooperation Council</a> (GCC) — an intergovernmental political and economic union made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. </p>
<p>Here are four areas that can support cooperation between Indonesia and the GCC.</p>
<h2>1. Trade and investment is good — but can be better</h2>
<p>The GCC and Indonesia already have quite a good investment relationship, and it’s improved further in recent years. </p>
<p>Trade between Indonesia and the Gulf States <a href="https://www.antaranews.com/berita/1033326/indonesia-perkuat-kerja-sama-ekonomi-dengan-negara-negara-teluk">increased by 40%</a> from US$ 8.68 billion in 2016 to $12.15 billion in 2018. Indonesian imports from the Gulf countries are worth more than $7.6 million per year, with Saudi Arabia <a href="https://www.trademap.org/Country_SelProductCountry_TS.aspx?nvpm=1%7c360%7c%7c%7c%7cTOTAL%7c%7c%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c1">ranked</a> 12th among Indonesia’s global trading partners.</p>
<p>Investment has also grown — <a href="https://mediaindonesia.com/internasional/255992/indonesia-perkuat-kerja-sama-ekonomi-dengan-negara-teluk">by 26%</a> from $60.3 million in 2016 to $76.1 million in 2018. Although the number remains small, the two countries have increased their two-way investments.</p>
<p>Increasing cooperation in the economic sector, however, is not enough.</p>
<p>The Gulf is rich in <a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/ekonomi/20200207105459-85-472523/gara-gara-minyak-imf-ramal-kekayaan-negara-teluk-habis-2034">oil and gas</a>; Indonesia, too, has a <a href="https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/market/20190626094429-17-80665/indonesia-kaya-sumber-daya-berkah-atau-musibah">wealth of natural resources</a>. </p>
<p>There is an opportunity for both of parties to cooperate further when it comes to natural resource development, especially in the oil and gas sector. </p>
<p>In 2019, Indonesia’s imports of fossil fuels from the GCC <a href="https://www.trademap.org/Bilateral_TS.aspx?nvpm=1%7c360%7c%7c%7c38%7c2710%7c%7c%7c4%7c1%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c1%7c%7c1">reached</a> $2.4 million. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar were among the ten biggest sources of oil imports for Indonesia.</p>
<p>In the same year, imports of coal from Indonesia to the GCC <a href="https://www.trademap.org/Bilateral_TS.aspx?nvpm=1%7c%7c38%7c360%7c%7c2701%7c%7c%7c4%7c1%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c1%7c1%7c%7c1">was worth</a> $18,922, making Indonesia the fifth <a href="https://www.trademap.org/Country_SelProductCountry_TS.aspx?nvpm=1%7c%7c38%7c%7c%7c2701%7c%7c%7c4%7c1%7c1%7c1%7c2%7c1%7c4%7c1%7c1%7c1">largest</a> exporter of coal to the Gulf.</p>
<h2>2. Multilateralism presents opportunities</h2>
<p>Multilateralism, which is more coordinated interaction between states, can help increase efficiency and produce more coordinated global networks. </p>
<p>By working together, both parties contribute to strengthening the world trading system and multilateralism in general. </p>
<p>In this case, Indonesia and the Gulf are already eyeing cooperation. Indonesia encouraged the formation of the GCC <a href="https://www.kemendag.go.id/en/newsroom/press-release/bertemu-mendag-arab-saudi-mendag-ri-dorong-percepatan-indonesia-gcc-cepa">Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)</a>, which will help facilitate better outcomes for both economies, especially for Saudi Arabia, which a key partner for Indonesia. </p>
<p>Indonesia supported and welcomed the 2020 <a href="https://www.kemendag.go.id/en/newsroom/press-release/bertemu-mendag-arab-saudi-mendag-ri-dorong-percepatan-indonesia-gcc-cepa">presidency of Saudi Arabia</a> at the G20 — an international forum for the governments and central bank governors of 19 countries and the European Union. </p>
<p>At the same time, it has supported Saudi Arabia’s efforts to encourage key G20 member countries to discuss global economic challenges and opportunities.</p>
<h2>3. Solidarity in and after the pandemic</h2>
<p>On the pandemic mitigation front, the UAE wants to give Indonesia <a href="https://kabar24.bisnis.com/read/20200822/15/1281915/indonesia-akan-dapat-10-juta-dosis-vaksin-covid-19-dari-uea">10 million doses COVID-19 vaccine</a> (other sources say it’s <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1723681/world">30 million doses</a>). </p>
<p>The vaccines are from China, and this kind of pandemic mitigation effort forms a <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1723681/world">new front in the cooperative relationship between Indonesia, the UAE and China</a>.</p>
<p>Indonesia’s desire to work with Saudi Arabia to <a href="https://sehatnegeriku.kemkes.go.id/baca/rilis-media/20190304/1129635/indonesia-arab-saudi-sepakati-2-bentuk-kerja-bidang-kesehatan/">deepen cooperation on health issues</a> can help tackle COVID-19.</p>
<p>Indonesia also wants to send health workers, equipment and medicines to Saudi Arabia. </p>
<p>Indonesia and the UAE are also <a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/08/23/06201651/indonesia-dan-uea-bahas-kerja-sama-terkait-covid-19-hingga-energi-dan-pangan">collaborating</a> to manufacture laser-based and artificial intelligence-based COVID-19 detectors.</p>
<p>Indonesia last year <a href="https://pressrelease.kontan.co.id/release/bertemu-mendag-arab-saudi-mendag-ri-dorong-percepatan-indonesia-gcc-cepa?page=all">sought</a> to expedite internal processes in the GGC to accelerate economic partnership agreements with the Gulf countries. </p>
<p>The CEPA could support two-way trade and investment, improve market access, and promote inclusive economic growth in Indonesia and the GCC for the mutual benefit of both countries.</p>
<p>Although this effort might be affected by the pandemic, it will certainly continue in future and help return economic activity to normal.</p>
<h2>4. Cultural and people-to-people contacts</h2>
<p>Mutually beneficial socio-cultural cooperation can encourage better economic and political relations.</p>
<p>As Muslim-majority countries, Indonesia and the Gulf states share a <a href="https://www.beritasatu.com/archive/417068/indonesiaarab-perkuat-kerja-sama-kebudayaan">similar religious background</a> which can help facilitate communication and cooperation. </p>
<p>Education can be place to start, with young generation exchanging knowledge and deepening <a href="https://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/pendidikan/pr-01275464/begini-kesepakatan-indonesia-arab-saudi-di-bidang-pendidikan-394995">connections</a>. </p>
<p>Such cooperation could help overcome linguistic-cultural barriers and increase the number of professionals who are acquainted with each other’s societal norms, customs, methods of performing business, as well as national and institutional interests.</p>
<p>Tourism is another area to develop. This sector could set an example of how cultural and people-to-people connection can be a driver for economic development between the two parties.</p>
<p><em>Fuad Tingai, a Universitas Islam Indonesia student, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157236/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Key areas for cooperation between Indonesia and the Gulf countries are trade and investment, multilateralism, pandemic mitigation, and cultural exchange.Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, Lecturer in International Relations, Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) YogyakartaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1555832021-02-25T17:48:45Z2021-02-25T17:48:45ZChanging the way we conduct research: advocating for sustainability science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385008/original/file-20210218-24-62tjr8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2300%2C1525&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Gabon, sampling of bats in the framework of the EBOSURSY project. The objective is to promote the improvement of early detection systems in wild animals to prevent Ebola and other emerging diseases.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pierre Becquart/IRD</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To stay in step with their times, make their voices heard and play a decisive role in shaping major future directions, researchers must move toward a “sustainability science”.</p>
<p>Countless articles published by scientists since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic have reached the same conclusion: there was a risk of a global pandemic; scientific communities repeatedly sounded the alarm; governments were not sufficiently prepared, even though we have already experienced serious health and ecological crises and will have to face other, more violent ones.</p>
<p>These events are the result of our excesses and reflect economic and political reasoning that reaches far beyond the realm of our laboratories. Yet, doesn’t this situation also call for scientific communities to rethink the way they build knowledge and propose concrete solutions to respond to global challenges?</p>
<p>As philosopher Edgar Morin said in a recent interview, in this time of health crisis, shouldn’t we also have the courage to “see the greatness of contemporary science along with its shortcomings?”</p>
<h2>Moving beyond disciplinary interests</h2>
<p>Science is now being called upon to find solutions. A multitude of voices are making themselves heard, offering opposing viewpoints at times. But we have to work quickly, provide guidance for public policies and solve problems. While these requirements are legitimate, it is time for us to prepare ourselves better in order to avoid future crises.</p>
<p>Contemporary research remains fragmented and focused on individual disciplines, and it falls very short when it comes to the relationship between the results proposed and the problems to be solved. Putting out the “Covid-19 fire” with research on treatments and vaccines is crucial in order to save lives… but let us not forget that the rest of the planet is burning! We must find new ways to work together if we want to stand a chance of solving environmental crises.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, the recent advent of “sustainability science” is a sign of a radical change in the construction of new knowledge systems. A defining feature of this approach is that research problems are anchored in addressing real-world problems, rather than in the sole dynamics of the scientific disciplines involved.</p>
<p>The aim is to promote interdisciplinary knowledge, built jointly by scientists and stakeholders in society, in an effort to move beyond disciplinary interests. This approach is still marginal, especially in France, but is essential to gaining a better understanding of the complexity of the modern world and finding more comprehensive solutions to the economic, social and environmental challenges facing our societies.</p>
<h2>Developing cooperative projects</h2>
<p>Based on the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDG) established by the United Nations in 2015, new research frameworks may be invented in an effort to foster dialogue between experts from different scientific disciplines and create collective knowledge.</p>
<p>This is what international panels of experts (<a href="http://www.ipcc.ch">IPCC</a>, <a href="https://sustainabedevelopment.un.org/gsdr2019">GSDR</a>, <a href="http://www.ipbes.net">IPBES</a>) are already trying to do by providing a multi-disciplinary scientific consensus without which we would not be able to understand and take action concerning the future evolutions of our planet.</p>
<p>However, to tackle the issues at stake, there is an urgent need to strengthen joint efforts to build knowledge by incorporating the full range of scientific expertise more effectively, in close cooperation with policy-makers and civil society. To this end, the management of emerging diseases is perhaps one of the most compelling illustrations of the benefits of sustainability science.</p>
<p>Responding to the Ebola crisis required a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1004992">coordinated effort</a>, geared toward a common goal – ecologists specialised in the dynamics of reservoir animal populations, sociologists and economists who study the vicious circles of poverty, <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jda/6452">anthropologists</a> specialised in the construction of representations of disease and, of course, infectious disease specialists and doctors cooperating with public health institutes and the communities affected.</p>
<p>In France, although some laboratories are organized with a multidisciplinary approach, thematic silos and competition between disciplines are still too pervasive. It is not enough to bring together researchers with different kinds of expertise – they must work toward a common goal, demonstrate curiosity about other disciplines and consider the epistemology of interfaces in order to rethink the way questions are developed and the synergy between different kinds of knowledge.</p>
<p>As such, there is an urgent need to develop new, ambitious and publicly-funded joint scientific projects that bring together international expertise and work toward a common goal (following in the steps of <a href="https://home.cern/">CERN</a>, the <a href="https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project">Human Genome Project</a>, and the <a href="http://www.seaaroundus.org/">Sea Around Us</a> in marine ecology). These projects focused on developing solutions are complementary with disruptive research, drawing on scientists’ curiosity and creativity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TTjs7vVpzsw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video presenting the results of research on illegal fishing under the <em>Sea Around Us</em> program (2020).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Concrete actions</h2>
<p>The Covid-19 crisis has led us to think about concrete ways to promote sustainability science. It appears necessary to strengthen the role of partnership-based, participatory, community research and special attention must be paid to the ethics of the partnership, especially in the Global South, by respecting all of its forms, such as traditional knowledge.</p>
<p>Participatory research with local stakeholders is not a new idea, but it must be promoted in order to build local capacities to better prepare for and combat future crises, especially in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. The growing involvement of society stakeholders can also help bridge the gap between researchers and citizens and help bring them together to work toward a shared goal.</p>
<p>One recent example is the “Silent Cities” project to assess the impact of lockdown measures on biodiversity (birds, amphibians and insects) by monitoring the modification of soundscapes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338279/original/file-20200528-51449-1c4ulhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of installation of an AudioMoth recorder on a balcony, in Toulouse, France, in the framework of the Silent Cities project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://osf.io/h285u/">Silent Cities</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Promoting sustainability science also calls for a rethink of the indicators used by the assessment authorities for higher education and research. High quality level requirements for the science that is produced must be maintained and combined with practices that are in step with global challenges.</p>
<p>Scientists must be allowed to build on the activities they have developed in direct interaction with society, as is the case in many countries – in the United States notably with the land grant universities involved in improving quality of life in their region, hours dedicated to “community” activities in South America, and joint university curriculum development with local stakeholders in certain African centres of excellence (<a href="http://ceaagrisan.sn/">AGRISAN</a>, for example).</p>
<p>Finally, it is crucial to apply the principles of sustainability science to our own research institutions, for example by creating places where knowledge can be built jointly by scientific communities and stakeholder organisations (innovation labs) and establishing measures to reduce the energy consumption of our research practices. There is also an urgent need to consider our responsibility to train future generations to conduct research focused on taking up major challenges, and to make them more aware of a science that is fundamentally open to others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The period in which we are living is conducive to reflection in order to co-construct new knowledge systems and think research differently.Valérie Verdier, Phytopathologiste, présidente-directrice générale, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Olivier Dangles, Écologue, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Philippe Charvis, Directeur Délégué à la Science de l'IRD, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Philippe Cury, Senior research scientist, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1508042020-12-04T13:26:20Z2020-12-04T13:26:20ZAs the pandemic rages, the US could use a little bit more ‘samfundssind’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372634/original/file-20201202-15-1trqd5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C7%2C4637%2C3127&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pedestrians walk past a waste bin for disposable face masks in Aarhus Center, Denmark.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/pedestrians-walk-past-a-waste-bin-for-disposable-face-masks-news-photo/1229750882?adppopup=true">Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years, the English-speaking world has found two Danish concepts, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-danish-word-the-world-needs-to-combat-stress-pyt-112216">pyt</a>” and “<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-denmark-dominates-the-world-happiness-report-rankings-year-after-year-93542">hygge</a>,” useful for dealing with anxiety and stress.</p>
<p>Now another Danish word – “<a href="https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=samfundssind">samfundssind</a>” – might help countries grapple with the pandemic.</p>
<p>In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Danish Prime Minister <a href="https://www.regeringen.dk/nyheder/2020/statsminister-mette-frederiksens-indledning-paa-pressemoede-i-statsministeriet-om-corona-virus-den-11-marts-2020/">Mette Frederiksen urged</a> all Danes to show “samfundssind,” which means to consider the needs of society above your own. In English, it roughly translates to community spirit, civic engagement or civic-mindedness. </p>
<p>Since then, relative to the U.S. and the rest of Europe, Denmark <a href="https://hope-project.dk/dashboard/">has done quite well</a> responding to the coronavirus, with <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">low rates of infections and deaths</a> and <a href="https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2020-10-27-hver-syvende-dansker-vil-ikke-foelge-regeringens-nye-anbefalinger-viser-ny">high rates of compliance with preventative guidelines</a>. And research shows that – regardless of their gender or age – <a href="https://videnskab.dk/forskerzonen/kultur-samfund/de-unge-udviser-faktisk-samfundssind">Danes are more concerned about infecting others than getting infected themselves</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, the fact that Denmark has weathered the COVID-19 crisis well <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7217796/">cannot be explained by any one factor</a>. But as a Dane and a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Uaz22I8AAAAJ&hl=en">psychological scientist</a>, I think it’s interesting that samfundssind seems to be related to societal values like trust and reciprocity, both of which are useful in combating a pandemic. </p>
<h2>In society we trust</h2>
<p>Before the pandemic, samfundssind was a relatively obscure word that was rarely, if ever, used. It first appeared in a Danish dictionary in <a href="https://dsn.dk/nyt/nyt-fra-sprognaevnet/numre/argang-2020-2024/maj-2020">1936</a>, and former Danish Prime Minister <a href="https://www.facebook.com/arbejdermuseet.dk/posts/3269812343049678/">Thorvald Stauning</a> included it in several speeches in the late 1930s imploring Danes to show community spirit as World War II was approaching. However, since Frederiksen used the word in her March speech, its usage in Denmark <a href="https://dsn.dk/nyt/nyt-fra-sprognaevnet/numre/argang-2020-2024/maj-2020">has spiked</a>. </p>
<p>Although the word seems straightforward, it is also what linguists call an <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095750424">empty signifier</a> because <a href="https://videnskab.dk/forskerzonen/kultur-samfund/ordet-samfundssind-betyder-ikke-noget-konkret-derfor-kan-det-alligevel-betyde-saa">it can mean very different things to different people</a>. </p>
<p>To some, samfundssind might mean people should follow most coronavirus guidelines. To others it means you should leave the house only if necessary. And still others believe it entails <a href="https://coronakrisen.github.io/post5.html">volunteering your time and money</a> to help individuals affected by the coronavirus lockdown. But while the word is debated and discussed, these debates center on how to best achieve samfundssind, not whether it’s a good idea to consider societal needs above your own.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mette Frederiksen wearing a black mask and holding a folder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372355/original/file-20201201-18-fawd5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen attends a European summit in Brussels to discuss coronavirus aid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/denmarks-prime-minister-mette-frederiksen-leaves-after-a-news-photo/1227712970?adppopup=true">Johanna Geron/Pool/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The concept of samfundssind seems to be related to what researchers call <a href="https://www.oecd.org/insights/37966934.pdf">social capital</a>. Members of societies that have high levels of social capital tend to be more trusting and reciprocal while feeling more connected to their fellow citizens – all attitudes that lend themselves to considering the needs of a community over your own.</p>
<p>Denmark is an <a href="https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/denmark/">individualistic society</a>, and <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/aa436802-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/aa436802-en#section-d1e22357">Danes rank as the most trusting in the world</a>. They score highly in interpersonal trust as well as trust in institutions, such as the police and government. Denmark also has the world’s <a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/news/cpi-2019-global-highlights">lowest levels of corruption</a>. </p>
<p>High trust and low corruption mean people can reasonably expect they will benefit – and not be taken advantage of – by complying with COVID-19-related public recommendations or requirements, such as mask-wearing or working from home. And large studies from 25 European countries show that people living in regions with high institutional trust <a href="https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=914102031001106098104103113083102099023003054016005000096124115115009030073007005117004064124032038005107011083099091120105126016112001071114099066030067101067018092102081022084021&EXT=pdf">reduced their nonessential mobility</a> – an indicator of social distancing – and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7184967/">had fewer COVID-19 deaths</a>. </p>
<p>This finding is not unique to European countries. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953620307206?dgcid=rss_sd_all">Research examining all counties in the United States</a> found that people in communities with higher levels of social capital were more likely to stay at home as the pandemic unfolded. And this has been shown to have important outcomes. <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/223752/1/dp13310.pdf">A study</a> found that across Europe and within Italy, more social capital was associated with less mobility and fewer deaths.</p>
<h2>Do gender-equal cultures have an advantage?</h2>
<p>Danes might also be particularly amenable to appeals to samfundssind because <a href="https://www.danmarkskanon.dk/">the country values gender equality</a>, which coincides with the fact that the nation scores low on cultural masculinity. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/denmark,the-usa/">global research</a> on culture and masculinity, societies that score high in masculinity – such as the U.S. – value competition, achievement and success. Societies that score low, such as Denmark, tend to be more oriented toward having a high quality of life, having meaningful work and caring for others. Conflicts tend to be settled by negotiation and compromise, and people value equality and solidarity. </p>
<p>Might a culture’s masculinity be a barrier to coronavirus precautions? It could, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/10/us/politics/trump-biden-masks-masculinity.html">if enough people view taking precautions as weak or unmanly</a>. And <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7477467/pdf/S1743923X20000380a.pdf">a large study</a> of American men and women showed that having sexist beliefs strongly predicted lower concern about the pandemic, fewer precautionary behaviors, less support for coronavirus mitigation policies and an increased likelihood of contracting COVID-19.</p>
<p>Of course, all societies have some degree of samfundssind. If it’s measured by volunteering, donating money or helping a stranger, <a href="https://www.cafonline.org/docs/default-source/about-us-publications/caf_wgi_10th_edition_report_2712a_web_101019.pdf">the U.S. does quite well</a>. In fact, from 2009 to 2018, the U.S. ranked first and Denmark 16th on these measures. </p>
<p>Denmark does not possess some sort of secret sauce; many places in the U.S. and around the world have high levels of community engagement and support, which have led to more COVID-19 precautions and fewer deaths. There are U.S. communities that emphasize wearing a mask <a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/philly-covid-19-face-mask-media-campaign-septa-coronavirus-united-states/">to care for neighbors</a> or <a href="https://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/4482/masking_up_for_the_common_good">for the common good</a>. Of course, this sort of messaging has been uneven, varying by town, city and state.</p>
<p>So what can you do to sustain or improve social capital in your <a href="https://www.fsresidential.com/georgia/news-and-events/articles/nine-ways-to-build-community-spirit">local community</a>? </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Community engagement and volunteering can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z#Sec13">set a good example</a> and strengthen communities by inspiring others to do the same. And if you ask people to “help me understand your perspective,” it’s possible to build trust; <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-63654-001">research shows</a> that feeling understood can make us trust even people with whom we disagree. </p>
<p>With winter approaching and the pandemic showing no signs of slowing down, the impulse may be to retreat from the public health emergency and think only about ourselves and our own needs. </p>
<p>Samfundssind, however, can remind us to look outward, rather than inward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Helweg-Larsen has received funding from the National Institutes of Health. </span></em></p>The word, which roughly translates to considering the needs of society above your own, has become a buzzword in Denmark.Marie Helweg-Larsen, Professor of Psychology, the Glenn E. & Mary Line Todd Chair in the Social Sciences, Dickinson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1411062020-08-14T12:11:55Z2020-08-14T12:11:55ZHoney bees can’t practice social distancing, so they stay healthy in close quarters by working together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352321/original/file-20200811-14-mo8zzi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5973%2C3958&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The complex interactions that maintain group health inside a bee hive offer lessons for humanity during pandemics. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachael Bonoan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As many states and cities across the U.S. struggle to control COVID-19 transmission, one challenge is curbing the spread among <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/shared-housing/index.html">people living in close quarters</a>. Social distancing can be difficult in places such as nursing homes, apartments, college dormitories and migrant worker housing.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F4R8GeDV0D7J0vQFYo0EIN7WE8S0Xsrf4iyl4ou0xv5TZonYueaMbYJDhdcKG2t9nSNTBoqL1mmVdkOJC3x69uokwCbiw&user=KF4sBDIAAAAJ">behavioral ecologists</a> who have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B6WmgvLL8vMC&hl=en">social interactions in honey bees</a>, we see parallels between life in the hive and efforts to manage COVID-19 in densely populated settings. Although honey bees live in conditions that aren’t conducive to <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-distancing-works-just-ask-lobsters-ants-and-vampire-bats-135383">social distancing</a>, they have developed unique ways to deal with disease by collectively working to keep the colony healthy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GQbtj3w-kGs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Rachael Bonoan and interns checking the hives she studied at Tufts University’s veterinary campus in North Grafton, Mass.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Life in a crowd</h2>
<p>Honey bees, like humans, are highly social organisms. A honey bee colony is a bustling metropolis made up of of thousands of individuals. </p>
<p>Three “types” of bees share space inside the colony. The queen, who is the only reproductive female, lays eggs. Drones, the male bees, leave the hive to mate with queens from other colonies. Workers – sterile females – make up the bulk of the colony and do all the nonreproductive work. They construct wax comb, collect and bring back food, tend to the young and more. </p>
<p>Members of a colony work so well together that the colony can be referred to as a “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/11/29/97547749/the-secret-society-of-superorganisms">superorganism</a>” – a highly connected community that functions like a single being. </p>
<p>Being this social comes with many benefits: Just ask any single parent how helpful it would be right now to live in a community that featured cooperative child care! But it also imposes costs – notably, the spread of disease. Inside the hive, worker bees transfer nectar to each other, essentially swapping the essential ingredient for honey. They crawl on top of each other and bump into others all the time. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352323/original/file-20200811-24-nuqf2n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bee colony is organized around the queen — marked with a paint dot so that she is easier to find, and scientists and beekeepers can track her age.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachael Bonoan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, humans keep many honey bee colonies next to each other for agricultural purposes. This creates unnatural, densely populated “cities” of these superorganisms, where pests and disease can spread rampantly. </p>
<h2>Social immunity</h2>
<p>Like humans, individual worker bees have immune systems that recognize invading pathogens and fight to get rid of them. However, there are some classes of pathogens that the honey bee immune system <a href="https://insectessociaux.com/2018/11/02/honey-bee-immunity-more-specific-than-we-thought">does not seem to recognize</a>. Bees thus need a different tactic for fighting them.</p>
<p>For these threats, honey bees defend the colony via social immunity – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00186">cooperative behavioral effort</a> by many bees to protect the colony as a whole. For example, worker bees remove diseased and dead young from the colony, reducing the likelihood of transmitting infections to other bees. </p>
<p>Worker bees also line the hive with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1051/apido/2010016">an antimicrobial substance called propolis</a>, made from plant resin that they collect and mix with wax and bee enzymes. Applied to hive walls and between cracks, this “bee glue” kills various types of pathogens, including the bacterium that causes a dreaded honey bee disease called <a href="https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/american-foulbrood/#ad-image-0">American foulbrood</a>.</p>
<p>Another pathogen, the fungus <em>Ascosphaera apis</em>, causes a honey bee disease known as <a href="https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/chalkbrood/#ad-image-0">chalkbrood</a>. Because the fungus is heat sensitive, chalkbrood usually does not affect a strong honey bee hive, which maintains its own temperature somewhere between 89.6 degrees F and 96.8 degrees F. But when a colony is small or the outside temperature is cool, as in an early New England spring, chalkbrood can become a problem. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beekeeper in protective suit check hives in a California almond orchard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352779/original/file-20200813-16-1f50n7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pollinating an almond orchard near Turlock, Calif. Clustering many honey bee colonies close together makes it easier for diseases and pathogens to spread between them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Dying-Bees-Almond-Pollination/913bbcd867b74e2587d1f6cb9ff52d44/33/0">AP Photo, Gosia Wozniacka</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The chalkbrood pathogen affects young honey bees, or larvae, which become infected when they are fed spores from infected food. It lies dormant in the larval gut waiting for the temperature to drop below 86 degrees F. If this happens, the pathogen grows inside the larval stomach and eventually kills the young bee, turning it into a white chalk-like mummy.</p>
<p>When this pathogen is detected, worker bees protect the vulnerable young by contracting their large flight muscles to generate heat. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s001140050709">raises the temperature in the brood comb area of the hive</a> just enough to kill the pathogen. (Honey bees use heat for many reasons: to optimize offspring development, to fight pathogens, and even to “<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/3/120316-hot-bee-balls-hornets-insects-brains-animals-science/">bake” invading hornets</a>.) </p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p>
<p>In a recent study, we investigated how the efficiency of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00754-5">colony-level fever</a> might change with colony size. At the <a href="https://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/starks/">Starks Lab Apiary</a>, we infected colonies of various sizes with chalkbrood and tracked the response of the colonies with thermal imaging.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352318/original/file-20200811-20-ex03i5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bees work hard to keep hives warm, killing specific pathogens. A Tufts summer intern documents those higher temperatures, shown in red at right, using a thermal imaging camera.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rachael Bonoan</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Larger colonies successfully generated a colony-level fever to fight the disease. Smaller colonies struggled, but individual bees in the smaller colonies worked harder to raise the temperature than those in the larger colonies. Even if they fail, the bees don’t cave in to fever fatigue by abandoning the fight.</p>
<h2>In the hive, public health is for everyone</h2>
<p>Like honey bee colonies in agricultural fields, many humans live in extremely dense conditions, which has been especially problematic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The point of social distancing is to act as if we live in lower densities by wearing masks, keeping at least 6 feet away from others and allowing fewer people in stores.</p>
<p>Data from early in the pandemic show that social distancing was slowing the spread of the virus. But then humans became <a href="https://theconversation.com/complying-with-lockdown-does-become-harder-over-time-heres-why-138691">lockdown-fatigued</a>. By summer, many people were no longer social distancing or wearing masks; on average, individuals were <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/07/05/maskless-parties-and-crowded-beaches-across-us-as-coronavirus-spikes-over-holiday-weekend/">doing less to slow the spread of the virus than in April</a>. The five-day running average of new U.S. cases <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases">rose</a> from less than 10,000 in early May to more than 55,000 by late July. </p>
<p>Although honey bees cannot wear masks or socially distance, each individual worker contributes to the public health of the colony. And they all follow the same practices. </p>
<p>They also excel at making group decisions. For example, when it comes time to choose a new home, a worker bee who has checked out a new nest site <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/02/19/172385254/the-filibuster-solution-or-what-if-honeybees-ran-the-u-s-senate">dances to promote it to other bees</a>. The more suitable the site, the longer and harder she will work to convince the others. </p>
<p>If others express agreement – via dancing, of course – the colony moves to the new nest site. If the bees do not agree, that specific dance stops, that option eventually falls out of favor, and the search continues. In this way, only a group of informed supporters can win the day.</p>
<p>As many commentators have observed, the strong focus on <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/masks-coronavirus-america.html">freedom and individualism in American culture</a> has hampered the U.S. response to COVID-19. We see honey bees as a valuable counter-model, and as powerful evidence that social benefits require a community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Starks receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachael Bonoan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Life in a honey bee hive is all about cooperating for the collective good.Rachael Bonoan, Assistant Professor of Biology, Providence CollegePhil Starks, Associate Professor of Biology, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1426012020-08-10T12:07:27Z2020-08-10T12:07:27Z‘Morality pills’ may be the US’s best shot at ending the coronavirus pandemic, according to one ethicist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351641/original/file-20200806-18-1o03yut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=373%2C137%2C3780%2C2821&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A psychoactive substance to make you act in everyone's best interest?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-capsule-on-spoon-over-white-background-royalty-free-image/956911912">Sayanh Kaew Mni/EyeEm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 is a collective risk. It threatens everyone, and we all must cooperate to lower the chance that the coronavirus harms any one individual. Among other things, that means <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html">keeping safe social distances and wearing masks</a>. But <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/23/most-americans-say-they-regularly-wore-a-mask-in-stores-in-the-past-month-fewer-see-others-doing-it/">many people choose not to do these things</a>, making spread of infection more likely.</p>
<p>When someone chooses not to follow public health guidelines around the coronavirus, they’re defecting from the public good. It’s the moral equivalent of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons#:%7E:text=The%20tragedy%20of%20the%20commons,resource%20through%20their%20collective%20action.">tragedy of the commons</a>: If everyone shares the same pasture for their individual flocks, some people are going to graze their animals longer, or let them eat more than their fair share, ruining the commons in the process. Selfish and self-defeating behavior undermines the pursuit of something from which everyone can benefit.</p>
<p>Democratically enacted enforceable rules – mandating things like mask wearing and social distancing – might work, if defectors could be coerced into adhering to them. But <a href="https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2020/states-mask-mandates-coronavirus.html">not all states have opted to pass them</a> or <a href="https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2020/05/15/several-michigan-sheriffs-say-they-wont-enforce-parts-of-executive-orders/">to enforce the rules</a> that are in place.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oEHIR14AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My research in bioethics</a> focuses on questions like how to induce those who are noncooperative to get on board with doing what’s best for the public good. To me, it seems the problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior. Could a psychoactive pill be the solution to the pandemic?</p>
<p>It’s a far-out proposal that’s <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2017/03/why-we-are-so-alarmed-by-the-idea-of-a-moral-enhancement-pill.html">bound to be controversial</a>, but one I believe is worth at least considering, given the importance of social cooperation in the struggle to get COVID-19 under control.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters outside California state capital building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351642/original/file-20200806-18-1gju1on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People in California protested stay-at-home orders in May – prioritizing the personal over the collective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hundreds-of-people-gather-to-protest-the-stay-at-home-news-photo/1211479844">Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Public goods games show scale of the problem</h2>
<p>Evidence from experimental economics shows that defections are common to situations in which people face collective risks. Economists use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_goods_game#:%7E:text=The%20public%20goods%20game%20is,put%20into%20a%20public%20pot.">public goods games</a> to measure how people behave in various scenarios to lower collective risks such as from climate change or a pandemic and to prevent the loss of public and private goods.</p>
<p>The evidence from these experiments is no cause for optimism. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0504902103">Usually everyone loses</a> because people won’t cooperate. This research suggests it’s not surprising people aren’t wearing masks or social distancing – lots of people defect from groups when facing a collective risk. By the same token, I’d expect that, as a group, we will fail at addressing the collective risk of COVID-19, because groups usually fail. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html">For more than 150,000 Americans so far</a>, this has meant losing everything there is to lose.</p>
<p>But don’t abandon all hope. In some of these experiments, the groups win and successfully prevent the losses associated with the collective risk. What makes winning more likely? Things like keeping a running tally of what others are contributing, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-50964-w">observing others’ behaviors</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102493108">communication and coordination</a> before and during play, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13530">democratic implementation of an enforceable rule requiring contributions</a>. </p>
<p>For those of us in the United States, these conditions are out of reach when it comes to COVID-19. You can’t know what others are contributing to the fight against the coronavirus, especially if you socially distance yourself. It’s impossible to keep a running tally of what the other 328 million people in the U.S. are doing. And communication and coordination are not feasible outside of your own small group.</p>
<p>Even if these factors were achievable, they still require the very cooperative behavior that’s in short supply. The scale of the pandemic is simply too great for any of this to be possible.</p>
<h2>Promoting cooperation with moral enhancement</h2>
<p>It seems that the U.S. is not currently equipped to cooperatively lower the risk confronting us. Many are instead pinning their hopes on the rapid development and distribution of an enhancement to the immune system – a vaccine.</p>
<p>But I believe society may be better off, both in the short term as well as the long, by boosting not the body’s ability to fight off disease but the brain’s ability to cooperate with others. What if researchers developed and delivered a moral enhancer rather than an immunity enhancer?</p>
<p>Moral enhancement is the use of substances to make you more moral. The psychoactive substances act on your ability to reason about what the right thing to do is, or your ability to be empathetic or altruistic or cooperative.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=coronavirus-help">Read The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>For example, oxytocin, the chemical that, among other things, can induce labor or increase the bond between mother and child, may cause a person to be more empathetic and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1189047">altruistic</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001128">more giving and generous</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyx047">The same goes for psilocybin</a>, the active component of “magic mushrooms.” These substances have been shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-015-0139-y">lower aggressive behavior in those with antisocial personality disorder</a> and to improve the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2017.07.483">ability of sociopaths to recognize emotion in others</a>. </p>
<p>These substances interact directly with the psychological underpinnings of moral behavior; others that make you more rational could also help. Then, perhaps, the people who choose to go maskless or flout social distancing guidelines would better understand that everyone, including them, is better off when they contribute, and rationalize that the best thing to do is cooperate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hand injecting a shot into a bare upper arm" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351643/original/file-20200806-14-1wz4hlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A moral booster rather than an immunological one?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/person-receiving-a-vaccine-royalty-free-image/83290870">Jeffrey Hamilton/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moral enhancement as an alternative to vaccines</h2>
<p>There are of course pitfalls to moral enhancement.</p>
<p>One is that the science isn’t developed enough. For example, while oxytocin may cause some people to be more pro-social, it also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015316108">appears to encourage ethnocentrism</a>, and so is probably a bad candidate for a widely distributed moral enhancement. But this doesn’t mean that a morality pill is impossible. The solution to the underdeveloped science isn’t to quit on it, but to direct resources to related research in neuroscience, psychology or one of the behavioral sciences.</p>
<p>Another challenge is that the defectors who need moral enhancement are also the least likely to sign up for it. As some have argued, a solution would be to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/unfit-for-the-future-9780198707929">make moral enhancement compulsory</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12496">administer it secretly, perhaps via the water supply</a>. These actions require weighing other values. Does the good of covertly dosing the public with a drug that would change people’s behavior outweigh individuals’ autonomy to choose whether to participate? Does the good associated with wearing a mask outweigh an individual’s autonomy to not wear one?</p>
<p>The scenario in which the government forces an immunity booster upon everyone is plausible. And the military has been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/02/more-than-human-the-ethics-of-biologically-enhancing-soldiers/253217/">forcing enhancements like vaccines or “uppers” upon soldiers</a> for a long time. The scenario in which the government forces a morality booster upon everyone is far-fetched. But a strategy like this one could be a way out of this pandemic, a future outbreak or the suffering associated with climate change. That’s why we should be thinking of it now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Parker Crutchfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rather than a vaccine to beef up your immune system, a psychoactive substance could boost your cooperative, pro-social behavior – curtailing the selfish actions that spur on coronavirus’s spread.Parker Crutchfield, Associate Professor of Medical Ethics, Humanities and Law, Western Michigan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1434562020-07-30T03:45:14Z2020-07-30T03:45:14ZWhat to do with anti-maskers? Punishment has its place, but can also entrench resistance<p>What’s driving “Bunnings Karen” and others to film themselves arguing with shop assistants about face masks and human rights? And how should we respond?</p>
<p>Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has called their behaviour “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-27/leaders-respond-to-bunnings-karen-mask-video/12494382">appalling</a>” and advised us to ignore them, because “the more you engage in an argument with them, the more oxygen you are giving them”.</p>
<p>Others are taking a more confrontational approach. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0gingyUq0Os?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>On Australia’s morning television Today show, presenter Karl Stefanovic cut off an interview <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz0xgpF114o">with an anti-masker</a> after telling her she had “weird, wacko beliefs” and “I can’t listen to you anymore”. And that’s relatively tame, compared with what’s being said about the “covidiots” on social media. </p>
<p>Our desire to condemn and punish non-cooperative behaviour is strong. One of the key insights from behavioural econonomics over the past few decades is that people are willing to punish others at a cost to themselves, and this helps increase cooperation – to an extent.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-australian-businesses-force-customers-to-wear-a-mask-heres-what-the-law-says-142641">Can Australian businesses force customers to wear a mask? Here's what the law says</a>
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<p>But condemnation and punishment can also reinforce resistance among the uncooperative. We must also try to understand the complex emotional motivations of those refusing to wear masks. </p>
<h2>Anti-masker motivations</h2>
<p>It’s hard to say how many people are opposed to mandatory mask wearing. But the evidence suggests social media channels such as YouTube and Facebook have increased the popularity of conspiratorial theories that governments want people to wear masks as some form of mind control. </p>
<p>The COVID conspiracy movement is a broad church, but there appear to be two fundamental traits among its adherents. </p>
<p>First, a belief in their own intuitive ability to know the truth.</p>
<p>Second, a deep and cultivated distrust of government and other institutions. They do not believe the mainstream media, and there is no shortage of alternative media narratives to sustain them. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350111/original/file-20200729-13-12fvf4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A popular conspiracy theorist meme. Ironically the quote from George Orwell is a fabrication.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Trust or distrust in authority, and whether one is more obedient or rebellious, has been shown to be an innate tendency, shaped by experience and culture. It is very difficult to shift. As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt notes in his 2012 book <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html">The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion</a>, our minds were designed for “groupish righteousness”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We are deeply intuitive creatures whose gut feelings drive our strategic reasoning. This makes it difficult – but not impossible – to connect with those who live in other matrices”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Distrust in authority is easily reinforced by any perceived mixed messages <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02547.x">from official sources</a>. In the case of masks, health officials initially advised against wearing them. We know the main purpose of this message was to safeguard limited supplies for health workers, but the change in tune has helped entrench anti-masker beliefs the government isn’t truthful.</p>
<h2>Cooperation and punishment</h2>
<p>So what to do?</p>
<p>The important issue is not whether we can change anti-masker beliefs but whether we can change their behaviour.</p>
<p>Traditional economic theory, which assumes people are rational and follow their self interest, would emphasise carrots and sticks.</p>
<p>Behavioural economics, which understands that decisions are emotional, would also recognise that people are quite ready to take a hit just to express their disgust about being treated unfairly.</p>
<p>This has been repeatedly demonstrated by a staple experiment of behavioural research – the “ultimatum game”. It involves two players and a pot of money. One person (the proposer) gets to nominate how to split that money. The other (the responder) can accept or reject the offer. If it’s a rejection, neither gets any money.</p>
<p>A “rational” responder would accept any offer over nothing. But studies have consistently shown a large percentage opt for nothing when they consider the money split unfair. </p>
<p>This sense of fairness is a deep evolutionary trait shared with other primates. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01963">Experiments with capuchin monkeys</a>, for example, have shown that two monkeys offered the same food (cucumber) will eat it. But if one monkey is given a sweeter treat (a grape) the other will reject the cucumber.</p>
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<p>Other types of games show this innate sense of fairness leads to a desire to penalise “selfish” people in some way. Most of us are “conditional cooperators”, and punishment of non-cooperative behaviour is important to maintain than cooperation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-contact-tracing-apps-most-of-us-wont-cooperate-unless-everyone-does-135959">Coronavirus contact-tracing apps: most of us won’t cooperate unless everyone does</a>
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<p>But punitive measures may paradoxically reduce compliant behaviour. </p>
<p>Economists Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini, for example, conducted an <a href="https://rady.ucsd.edu/faculty/directory/gneezy/pub/docs/fine.pdf">experiment in Israel</a> to discourage parents picking up their children from day care late by introducing fines. The result: lateness actually increased. Fines became a price, used by parents as a way to buy time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-change-coronavirus-behaviours-think-like-a-marketer-141914">To change coronavirus behaviours, think like a marketer</a>
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<h2>Need to express dissent</h2>
<p>If a rule jars with one’s beliefs, following it can cause huge emotional turmoil. Particularly if disobedience is the only way to express disagreement.</p>
<p>Could anti-maskers express their feelings in another way?</p>
<p>Economists Erte Xiao and Daniel Houser demonstrated this possibility <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/102/20/7398.full.pdf">in a variation of the standard ultimatum game</a>. </p>
<p>Normally the game only allows responders to express their feelings through accepting or rejecting a proposer’s offer. Xiao and Houser allowed responders to express their feelings about an unfair offer by sending a simple message. The result: they became much more likely to accept an unfair offer.</p>
<p>Some enterprising types seem to have cottoned on to this idea by selling face masks enabling wearers to signal their conspiracy convictions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Qanon-themed masks available on Amazon." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350067/original/file-20200729-35-1v21quc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>So if we want to anti-maskers to cooperate, we will need to tolerate them expressing their dissent in other ways. </p>
<p>Ostracism and ridicule will just increase their resistance and resentment, and reinforce the “us versus them” mentality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our desire to condemn and punish non-cooperative behaviour is strong. But we must also try to understand the complex emotional motivations of those refusing to wear masks.Meg Elkins, Senior Lecturer with School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT UniversityRobert Hoffmann, Professor of Economics and Chair of Behavioural Business Lab, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1404552020-06-29T12:57:57Z2020-06-29T12:57:57ZWhat coronavirus success of Taiwan and Iceland has in common<p><a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Taipei,-a-success-story:-zero-local-coronavirus-infections-for-a-month-50075.html">Taiwan</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/08/how-iceland-beat-the-coronavirus">Iceland</a> have won praise for their effective responses to the coronavirus pandemic. They are among a group of countries which adopted a cooperative strategy early on in the pandemic, bringing together multiple organisations to tackle the challenges in containing COVID-19. </p>
<p>A cooperative strategy is when organisations try to achieve their goals through cooperation with other organisations. Our own <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/cooperative-strategy-9780198814641?lang=en&cc=us">recent synthesis of research</a> explains the attraction of this approach. It can allow public authorities or companies to speed up their response to new challenges by partnering with other organisations which have complementary resources and expertise. </p>
<p>While other countries, including <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-masks-shortage-south-korea-germany-fatality-rates-trump-20200407.html">South Korea and Germany</a>, have deployed a cooperative approach, it’s been a key part of both Taiwan and Iceland’s response to the pandemic.</p>
<h2>Taiwan’s model</h2>
<p><a href="https://covid19.mohw.gov.tw/en/mp-206.html">Taiwan’s handling of COVID-19</a> has been exemplary. As of June 29, Taiwan, with a population of 23.8 million, has recorded <a href="https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En">only seven deaths</a> linked to the virus, with 447 confirmed cases – 435 of which had fully recovered.</p>
<p>The Taiwanese government acted quickly to control its borders. It activated a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En/Category/List/eYO2Szp2itC-QdXOhrVMEQ">Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC)</a> on January 20 to <a href="https://www.asiapacific.ca/publication/secret-taiwans-successful-covid-response">coordinate cooperation</a> across different government ministries and agencies, and between government and businesses. The CECC also coordinates <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2047-2501-2-3">big data analytics</a>, testing, quarantine and contact tracing.</p>
<p>Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration and National Immigration Agency <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689">worked together</a> to identify suspected cases for COVID-19 testing, integrating their databases of citizens’ medical and travel history. Since late March, all new arrivals must quarantine for 14 days. </p>
<p>CECC also <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0574_article">partnered with police agencies, local officials</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-taiwan-update-phone-tracking-lockdown-quarantine-a9413091.html">telecom companies</a> to enforce quarantine with the support of mobile phone tracking. Local officials would call quarantined citizens to ask about their health and bring them <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/taiwan-coronavirus/a-52724523">basic daily supplies if required</a>. Along with a 24-hour helpline, Taiwan’s Center for Disease Control <a href="https://nspp.mofa.gov.tw/nsppe/content_tt.php?unit=2&post=173912&unitname=Taiwan-Today&postname=CDC-announces-tech-partnerships-for-overseeing-home-quarantine">collaborated with two tech companies</a> – <a href="https://www.htc.com/tw/">HTC</a> and <a href="https://linecorp.com/en/">LINE</a>) – to create a <a href="https://www.oracle.com/uk/solutions/chatbots/what-is-a-chatbot/">chatbot</a> which allowed people to report their health status and get advice about the virus. </p>
<p>Taiwan can now test about <a href="https://covid19.mohw.gov.tw/en/cp-4788-53906-206.html">5,800 samples a day</a> through a cooperative network of public and private testing centres and certified laboratories.</p>
<p>To avoid the panic buying of face masks, the government rationed their distribution and <a href="https://time.com/collection/finding-hope-coronavirus-pandemic/5820596/taiwan-coronavirus-lessons/">ramped up production</a>. In February, the government <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2389c79e-315c-405a-b039-36422954b91a">partnered</a> with the Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association and manufacturers, investing in new machinery to produce surgical face masks. In return, manufacturers have to sell the masks back to the government at an agreed price. </p>
<p>This effective government-led cooperative strategy resulted in the establishment of <a href="https://www.trade.gov.tw/English/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeID=855&pid=692054">60 production lines in 25 days</a>, something which would normally have taken several months. More production lines have been added, and Taiwan now can produce about <a href="https://www.trade.gov.tw/English/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeID=855&pid=696005">20 million masks a day</a>. </p>
<p>The public can interact with the government on <a href="https://info.vtaiwan.tw">vTaiwan</a>, a virtual democracy platform for open discussion to build consensus on policy solutions. A <a href="https://www.scmp.com/video/china/3074960/taiwans-app-track-local-mask-supplies-amid-coronavirus-pandemic">face mask map</a> app grew out of a suggestion on vTaiwan and now provides <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-04-22/taiwan-offers-the-best-model-for-coronavirus-data-tracking">real-time information on stock availiability</a>. The app was developed through collaboration between the Digital Ministry and <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2020-03-20/how-civic-technology-can-help-stop-pandemic">a group of entrepreneurs and hacktivists</a>. </p>
<h2>Iceland’s strategy</h2>
<p>Iceland provides another example of a country which used a cooperative strategy to manage the pandemic. As of June 29, Iceland had <a href="https://www.covid.is/data">recorded 10 deaths</a> and 1,838 confirmed COVID-19 infections, of which 1,816 have fully recovered. Its success can be explained by the government’s quick action in activating the <a href="https://www.almannavarnir.is/english/pandemic-influenza/influenza-a-h1n1/">National Crisis Coordination Center</a> on January 31 to coordinate the country’s response to COVID-19 through mass testing, quarantine and tracing close contacts of infected citizens.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/these-are-the-oecd-countries-testing-most-for-covid-19/">public-private partnership</a> between the <a href="https://www.landspitali.is/um-landspitala/languages/landspitali-the-national-university-hospital-of-iceland/">National University Hospital of Iceland</a> and <a href="https://www.decode.com">deCODE Genetics</a> enabled Iceland to carry out aggressive testing from February.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344514/original/file-20200629-155339-14eioss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Testing in Iceland recorded by NUHI (National University Hospital of Iceland, The Department of Microbiology) and private firm deCODE Genetics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.covid.is/data-old">Government of Iceland</a></span>
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<p>Similar to Taiwan, cooperation and coordination between Iceland’s government ministries and agencies have played a key role in quarantine and contact tracing.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.landlaeknir.is/english/">Directorate of Health</a> worked with the <a href="https://www.almannavarnir.is/english/">Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management</a> to create <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/04/iceland-turned-worlds-biggest-study-covid-19-teaching-us/">a team of 60 contact tracers</a> in February, drawn from police investigators and healthcare workers. In this collaboration, the police contributed their expertise in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-cop-skilled-in-tracking-mobsters-is-now-focused-on-the-coronavirus-11586424602">traditional detective methods</a> and enforced quarantine rules. </p>
<p>These two departments also partnered with a group of companies to <a href="https://www.landlaeknir.is/um-embaettid/frettir/frett/item40650/covid-19-smitrakning-med-adstod-apps">create the Rakning C-19 tracing app</a> in consultation with Iceland’s Data Protection Authority. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/contact-tracing-is-working-around-the-world-heres-what-the-uk-needs-to-do-to-succeed-too-140293">Contact tracing is working around the world – here's what the UK needs to do to succeed too</a>
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<h2>Public trust</h2>
<p>The governments of both Taiwan and Iceland have secured high levels of public trust for their responses to coronavirus. In Taiwan, <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2020/05/18/international-covid-19-tracker-update-18-may">YouGov polls</a> in May showed that public trust in the government and healthcare professionals on COVID-19 was very high – at over 80%. A combination of transparency and effectiveness may explain <a href="https://www.gallup.is/frettir/covid-19-rannsokn-samanburdur-milli-landa/">polling</a> in April which suggested that 84% of Icelanders were willing to sacrifice some human rights if it helps to prevent the spread of the virus. </p>
<p>The example of these two countries shows how trust can be promoted by speedy government action to activate a crisis management and command centre which is headed by medical experts rather than politicians. Its purpose should be to coordinate cooperation between government and business and to communicate transparently with the public. This fits with a general lesson from cooperative strategies: openness between all parties is crucial and is a foundation for collaborative trust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Taiwan and Iceland both deployed a cooperative strategy early on in the COVID-19 pandemic – and it’s helped win public trust.Linda Hsieh, Reader in Strategy and International Business, University of BirminghamJohn Child, Professor of Commerce, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1359592020-04-22T20:03:32Z2020-04-22T20:03:32ZCoronavirus contact-tracing apps: most of us won’t cooperate unless everyone does<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329633/original/file-20200422-82707-acvjvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As governments look to ease general social-distancing measures and instead use more targeted strategies to stop coronavirus transmission, we face a social dilemma about the limits of cooperative behaviour.</p>
<p>Consider the controversy over contact-tracing phone apps, which can help authorities identify people with whom someone diagnosed with COVID-19 has recently come into close contact. </p>
<p><a href="https://045.medsci.ox.ac.uk/for-media">Oxford University research</a> suggests such apps could effectively stop the epidemic if 60% of the population use them, though even with lower uptake they still have some value.</p>
<p>The Australian government’s goal is for <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coronavirus-mobile-tracking-app-may-be-mandatory-if-not-enough-people-sign-up-scott-morrison-says">40% of the population</a> to use its app. It is hoping people will do this voluntarily.</p>
<p>That’s double the uptake so far achieved in Singapore, which launched its <a href="https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/">TraceTogether</a> app <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/about-one-million-people-have-downloaded-the-tracetogether-app-but-more-need-to-do-so-for">on March 20</a>. This despite a six-nation survey (including Australia) suggesting Singaporeans are the most relaxed about the <a href="https://www.consultancy.asia/news/3126/singaporean-attitudes-to-personal-covid-data-differ-to-overseas-counterparts">personal privacy concerns</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-governments-coronavirus-app-a-risk-to-privacy-136719">Is the government's coronavirus app a risk to privacy?</a>
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<p>My research into cooperative behaviour suggests there’s no reason to believe voluntary uptake will be higher anywhere else. </p>
<h2>What is a social dilemma?</h2>
<p>Economists define a <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ps.31.020180.001125">social dilemma</a> as a situation where individual interests conflict with collective interests. More specifically, it is a situation in which there is a collective benefit from widespread cooperation but individuals have an incentive to “free ride” on the cooperation of others.</p>
<p>For example, we would have collectively benefited if everyone had shown self-restraint in buying toilet paper and other items in the early weeks of the crisis. But selfish behaviour by some created a crisis for everybody else. </p>
<p>Economists, political scientists and evolutionary biologists have used social dilemma paradigms for more than half a century to study the evolution of cooperation in societies. </p>
<p>One of the most influential contributions to the field was a 1981 paper, <a href="https://ee.stanford.edu/%7Ehellman/Breakthrough/book/pdfs/axelrod.pdf">The Evolution of Cooperation</a>, by political scientist Robert Axelrod and evolutionary biologist William Hamilton. The paper’s key point is this: cooperation depends not on altruism but reciprocity. </p>
<h2>Most cooperation is conditional</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165176518302453">research</a> (with behavioural economist Christian Thöni of the University of Lausanne) confirms this. </p>
<p>Based on reviewing 17 social dilemma studies involving more than 7,000 individuals, we estimate no more than 3% of the population can be relied on to act cooperatively out of altruism – independent of what others do. </p>
<p>About 20% can be expected to act selfishly (i.e. free ride). </p>
<p>The majority – about 60% – are “conditional cooperators”. They cooperate if they believe others will cooperate. </p>
<p>Another 10% are so-called “triangle cooperators”. They behave similarly to conditional cooperators, but only to the point where they believe enough people are cooperating. They then reduce their cooperation. </p>
<p>The remainder – about 7% – behave unpredictably. </p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">This infographic illustrates the four cooperation types and levels of cooperation over time. Altruistiic cooperation does not depend on others. Conditional cooperation depends on others cooperating. Triangle cooperation is similar to conditional cooperation to a point, then falls away. Free-riding behaviour is always uncooperative and can only be modified by the fear of punishment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefan Volk</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>The need for punishment</h2>
<p>The most important group to consider in social dilemma situations is, of course, the majority. </p>
<p>Conditional cooperators are very sensitive to what they believe others will do. They will only pay taxes, save water, donate to charities or protect the environment if they believe most others are doing the same. </p>
<p>To maintain their cooperation, therefore, it is essential to uphold their beliefs in equality and egalitarianism, where everyone does their part, nobody gets preferential treatment, and nobody gets away with free riding.</p>
<p>Research by Swiss economists Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher has found just a small minority of free riders is sufficient to cause a <a href="http://eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/Dornhaus/courses/materials/papers/Fehr%20Fischbacher%20human%20altruism.pdf">breakdown of cooperation</a> over time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-modelling-tells-us-the-coronavirus-app-will-need-a-big-take-up-economics-tells-us-how-to-get-it-136944">Vital Signs: Modelling tells us the coronavirus app will need a big take-up, economics tells us how to get it</a>
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<p>Conditional cooperators will reduce their own cooperation as soon as they realise one or a few others are not complying with the collectively agreed rules. This in turn causes others to reduce their cooperation. It creates a downward spiral. </p>
<p>What stops this happening more is that many conditional cooperators will punish free riders, even at their own expense. </p>
<p>Fehr and Fischbacher <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513804000054">demonstrated this</a> through experiments involving “ultimatum games”. </p>
<p>They observed games in which one person got to propose how to split a pot of money between two players. If the other player rejected the split, neither got money. </p>
<p>In another scenario, the allocator was free to make the split however they liked. But a third party unaffected by the split could spend money from their own allocated pot to deny the allocator income. In 55% of cases, third parties were prepared to spend money to punish allocators who didn’t split the money fairly. Fehr and Fischbacher called this “altruistic punishment”. </p>
<p>Their results also showed anticipation of punishment deterred non-cooperative behaviour by free riders and reassured conditional cooperators’ beliefs in maintaining their commitment to collective cooperation. </p>
<h2>Two-factor validation</h2>
<p>The evidence from behavioural economics research indicates two mechanisms are essential to ensure cooperative behaviour on COVID-19 measures. </p>
<p>First, the majority of us must be reassured others are doing the right thing. This involves showcasing exemplary acts of cooperation and granting no preferential treatment to any kind of interest group. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app-wont-log-your-location-but-it-will-reveal-who-you-hang-out-with-136387">The coronavirus contact tracing app won't log your location, but it will reveal who you hang out with</a>
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<p>Second, we must be assured others aren’t getting away with uncooperative behaviour. In other words, free riding must be swiftly and visible punished.</p>
<p>Without these conditions, an expectation of widespread cooperative behaviour is merely a hope.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan Volk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Behavioural economics research suggests very few people will cooperate unless ‘free riders’ are punished.Stefan Volk, Associate Professor and Co-Director Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1263282019-11-03T17:53:22Z2019-11-03T17:53:22ZAnother approach to online platforms is possible: cooperation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299976/original/file-20191103-88368-e9ewyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">file ktfs j</span> </figcaption></figure><p>So-called collaborative platforms have been popular since their appearance in the late 2000s, but there is growing societal concern. On the technological end, their are questions concerning their use of personal data as well as the ethics of algorithms. Their broader socioeconomic model is also hotly debated: such platforms are designed to generate value for their users by organizing peer-to-peer transactions, but some of the more dominant ones charge high fees for their role as an intermediary. They’re also accused of dodging labor laws, with their high use of independent workers, practicing <a href="https://qz.com/937255/uber-is-being-sued-by-jolyon-maugham-for-millions-of-dollars-for-avoiding-value-added-tax-in-the-uk/">tax optimization</a> or contributing to the growing commodification of our everyday lives. Such concerns have even driven some of their users to take <a href="https://iwgb.org.uk/post/5c677844c08bf/deliveroo-riders-in-strike-act">collective action</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"917781259350347777"}"></div></p>
<h2>From collaboration to cooperation</h2>
<p>Though it is easy to criticize, creating alternatives is far more complicated. However, some initiatives are emerging. The international movement toward more cooperative platforms, launched in 2014 by <a href="https://www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty/Trebor-Scholz/">Trebor Scholz</a> at the New School in New York, promotes the creation of more ethical, fairer platforms. The idea is simple: why would platform users delegate intermediation to third-party companies which gain from the economic value of their exchanges when they could manage the platforms themselves?</p>
<p>The solution would be to adopt a cooperative model. In other words, to create platforms that are owned by their users and apply a democratic operating model, in which each co-owner has a voice, independent of their contribution of capital. In addition, an obligation to reinvest a proportion of the profit into the project, with no way of making a capital gain by selling shares, thus avoiding financial speculation.</p>
<p>Many experiments are underway around the world. For instance, <a href="https://www.fairmondo.de/">Fairmondo</a>, a German marketplace for fair trade products, allows users a share in the cooperative. Though not exhaustive, the <a href="https://platform.coop/directory">list</a> drawn up by the <a href="https://platform.coop/about/consortium">Platform Cooperativism Consortium</a> gives an overview of the scope of the movement.</p>
<p>Although the creators of cooperative platforms are willing to create alternatives to a concentrated, or even oligopolistic platform economy in some sectors, they come up against many challenges, particularly in terms of governance, economic models and technological infrastructure.</p>
<h2>Many challenges</h2>
<p>Based on our work on <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/apliut/4276">action research</a> in the French network of cooperative platforms, <a href="https://plateformes.coopdescommuns.org/">Plateformes en communs</a>, and an analysis of various foreign cases, we have identified a number of characteristics and limitations of alternative platforms.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=291&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267541/original/file-20190404-123426-gk1ovq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fairmondo, a German marketplace for fair trade products.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fairmondo.de/">Screen capture</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While they share a common opposition to major commercial platforms, there is no typical model for cooperative platforms, rather a multitude of experiments which are still in their early stages, with very different structures and modes of operation. Some were a natural progression from the movement against Uberization, like <a href="https://coopcycle.org/en/">Coopcycle</a>, while others were created by digital entrepreneurs searching for meaning, or by modernized social and solidarity economy organizations (ESS).</p>
<p>There are many challenges for these cooperative platforms, which have high social and economic ambitions and do not have pre-defined futures. Here we will focus on three major challenges: finding long-lasting economic and financial models, uniting communities, mobilizing supporters and partners.</p>
<h2>Making economic models durable</h2>
<p>In a highly competitive context, there is no margin for error for alternative platforms. To attract users, they have to offer high-quality services, including an exhaustive offering, efficient contact, simple use, and attractive aesthetics. However, it is difficult for cooperative platforms to attract investors, as being cooperatives or associations, they are generally not particularly lucrative. In addition, some opt to open up their assets, allowing open access to their computer code, for instance.</p>
<p>But while the creators of alternative digital platforms are entrepreneurs, their economic models remain more of an iteration than a business plan. Many cooperative platforms, still in the developmental stages, rely primarily on voluntary work (made possible by external income: second jobs, personal savings, unemployment benefits, social welfare payments) which may run out if the platform does not manage to create salaries and/or attract new contributors.</p>
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<h2>Creating a community</h2>
<p>The importance of creating a committed community to support the platform is primordial, both for its daily operations and its development, especially given that the economy of platforms relies on network effects: the more people or organizations a platform brings together, the more new ones it will also attract, as it will offer great opportunities to its users. It is therefore difficult for alternative platforms to penetrate sectors where there are already dominant actors.</p>
<p>Cooperative platforms try to differentiate themselves by creating communities which have input into the way the platform is run. Some, like <a href="https://www.openfoodfrance.org/">Open Food France</a>, specializing in local food distribution networks, have gone as far as broadening their community of cooperators to include public and private partners, and end consumers. This gives them a way to express their societal aspirations through their economic choices.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/310740131" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Digital platforms and their network-effects strategy”, an interview with Thierry Isckia, professor at the Institut Mines-Télécom Business School (2019).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The founders of <a href="http://blog.lesoiseauxdepassage.coop/en_en/">Oiseaux de passage</a> (Birds of Passage), a cooperative platform offering local tourism services, also opted for a broader view of membership. They chose the legal status of a collective-interest cooperative (<em>société coopérative d'intérêt collectif</em> in French), enabling several categories of stakeholders (tourism professionals, inhabitants, tourists) to hold shares in a collective company.</p>
<p>These cooperative platforms thus adopt an ecosystem-based approach, including all stakeholders that are naturally drawn to them. However, for the moment, user commitment remains low and project leaders are often overworked.</p>
<h2>Stopping the movement being hijacked</h2>
<p>Cooperative platforms are still in their youth, and struggle to gain the support they so desperately need. Financially speaking, their unstable models are insufficient in attracting public organizations and ESSs, which prefer to work with more stable, profitable commercial platforms. The other obstacle is political in nature. In the fight against Uberization, cooperative platforms present themselves as alternatives, whereas for the time being, public authorities seem to favor social dialog with the dominant platforms.</p>
<p>Cooperative platforms are almost left to their own devices, compensating for the lack of support by trying to join forces though a peer network, such as the <a href="https://platform.coop/about/consortium">Platform Cooperativism Consortium</a> on an international scale, or the <a href="https://plateformes.coopdescommuns.org/">Plateformes en Communs</a> in France. By uniting together, cooperative platforms have managed to attract media attention, but also attention from one of their most symbolic “enemies”. In May 2018, the Platform Cooperativism Consortium announced that it had received a <a href="https://www.shareable.net/blog/the-platform-cooperativism-consortium-awarded-1-million-googleorg-grant">$1 million grant</a> from… the Google Foundation. A grant aimed essentially at supporting the creation of cooperative platforms in developing countries.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1004448813564682240"}"></div></p>
<p>Naturally, the announcement created quite a stir in the movement, some people condemning a symbolically unacceptable contradiction, others expressing concern that the model might be appropriated by Google. In any case, this event highlights the lack of support for the movement, pushed into signing agreements which go against its very nature.</p>
<p>It therefore seems essential to the survival of cooperative platforms, and the general existence of alternatives to the platforms which are currently crushing the market, for public institutions and ESS structures to actively support developing projects. For example, through financing measures (especially venture capital), specialized support structures, commercial partnerships, equity participation, or even joint construction of platforms based on local needs. Without political input and innovation in practices, domination by global platforms without sharing seems inevitable.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/melissa-boudes-401495">Mélissa Boudes</a>, Associate Professor of Management, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/institut-mines-telecom-business-school-2402">Institut Mines-Télécom Business School,</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/guillaume-compain-709604">Guillaume Compain</a>, Doctoral student in Sociology, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-paris-dauphine-psl-2165">Université Paris Dauphine – PSL</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/muge-ozman-368952">Müge Ozman</a>, Professor of Management, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/institut-mines-telecom-business-school-2402">Institut Mines-Télécom Business School </a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This article was translated from the original French by <a href="https://blogrecherche.wp.imt.fr/en/2019/09/16/another-type-of-platforms-is-possible/">Institut Mines Télécom</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Some initiatives aim to develop more ethical and equitable models.Mélissa Boudes, Professeure associée en management, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School Guillaume Compain, Doctorant en sociologie, Université Paris Dauphine – PSLMüge Ozman, Professor of Management, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1211862019-08-05T05:01:24Z2019-08-05T05:01:24ZBuffet buddies: footage reveals that fierce leopard seals work together when king penguin is on the menu<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286426/original/file-20190731-186829-13nrkn0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A wild leopard seal on South Georgia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Robbins</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some people don’t like sharing their food – we all have a friend who gets cranky when you steal a chip from their plate. For wild animals, this makes sense, because any food shared is energy lost that could otherwise have been used to pursue more food. </p>
<p>So it was a big surprise to discover wild leopard seals feeding alongside one another while eating king penguins at South Georgia, a remote island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. On top of this, they may have even been cooperating with each other to eat these enormous seabirds. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286420/original/file-20190731-186801-2lqyna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=625&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Location of the study.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Robbins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We report this fascinating observation in a new study <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00300-019-02542-z">published today in the journal Polar Biology</a>. </p>
<h2>Can’t we just all get along?</h2>
<p>Leopard seals have a ferocious reputation as one of the top predators in the Antarctic ecosystem. They are infamously the “principal enemy of the penguin”, as immortalised in the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0f67QE-HP8">Happy Feet</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-mammals-took-to-water-they-needed-a-few-tricks-to-eat-their-underwater-prey-73770">When mammals took to water they needed a few tricks to eat their underwater prey</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But when they eat penguins, leopard seals are normally highly territorial, scaring off rivals by lunging at them with a fearsome set of teeth. Animal-mounted cameras have even revealed that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20XIu6JCCT8">leopard seals ambush each other to steal captured prey</a>. </p>
<p>But that’s not what was seen when the film crew working on the Netflix documentary series <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80049832">Our Planet</a> visited South Georgia. Instead, they were astonished to find wild leopard seals floating alongside one another dining together on a king penguin carcass, taking it in turns to tear off pieces of food.</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/W2W4BuOero0TbNtIbk/giphy.gif"></p>
<h2>Too costly to fight</h2>
<p>Given how aggressive leopard seals normally are around food, why were these seals behaving so out of character?</p>
<p>Consider this: if you were at an all-you-can-eat buffet and a stranger sat at your table and began eating your food, would you chase them away or let them share with you, knowing you could easily get more afterwards? </p>
<p>When food is very abundant, it may well be cheaper to share than to fight. Penguin colonies offer a near-constant supply of potential prey, attracting scores of predators. In this case, up to 36 leopard seals were seen near the colony at the same time. </p>
<p>So if a seal paused feeding to scare or fight off a rival, there is a good chance a third seal would sneak in and steal the food. In this situation it makes more sense to focus on eating as much as possible, as fast as possible – tolerating some food theft if necessary so as to avoid wasting energy on fighting that would risk losing the prey altogether. </p>
<p>The seals didn’t get along perfectly all the time. We saw some aggression, but perhaps this is to be expected if they are just tolerating each other out of necessity. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286417/original/file-20190731-186797-xqj7p3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even in our observations, the seals didn’t always get along – note the prey item floating in the water where it could easily be stolen by a third seal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dion Poncet</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Do leopard seals cooperate to eat large prey?</h2>
<p>Another explanation for these unexpected observations is that leopard seals might be cooperating to make it easier to consume such large prey.</p>
<p>Unlike northern seals, leopard seals don’t have <a href="https://theconversation.com/sharp-claws-helped-ancient-seals-conquer-the-oceans-92828">clawed paws to help them hold prey</a>. Instead, they have paddle-like flippers with tiny claws, forcing them to vigorously thrash the prey from side to side in their teeth to tear it into pieces small enough to swallow. This energy-intensive eating style is even harder when the prey is large – like adult king penguins.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286427/original/file-20190731-186797-1mzld09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unlike northern seals, leopard seals have a paddle-like flipper that lacks the large claws needed to hold and tear food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Robbins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286416/original/file-20190731-186809-1clvh5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tools of the trade: Leopard seals use their strong front teeth to kill penguins, while the trident-shaped cheek teeth act as a sieve for trapping tiny krill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Hocking</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alternatively, if two animals hold the prey between them, one can act as an anchor while the other tears off a chunk of meat. This saves a lot of energy that would otherwise be wasted shaking the prey around. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286423/original/file-20190731-186797-5zdato.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Group feeding behaviours filmed using a drone, showing two leopard seals dining together on an adult king penguin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration by Kai Hagberg. Photos by Silverback Films.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This type of cooperative food processing is actually quite common among aquatic top predators, such as killer whales and crocodiles, that can’t easily hold onto food.</p>
<h2>The unusual case of the sharing seal</h2>
<p>This last possibility made us rethink the interpretation of a famous encounter between a wild leopard seal and <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral/">National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen</a>. On entering the water, Nicklen was repeatedly approached by a seal that appeared to be trying to feed him a penguin in an act of unexpected altruism. But perhaps this was not a free gift, but an offer to cooperate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-birdlife-of-south-georgia-is-handed-another-chance-16105">The birdlife of South Georgia is handed another chance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The latest discovery is a great example of how new technology can help researchers make close-hand observations of wild animals. By using a camera drone, the film-makers could fly above the animals without disturbing them, allowing them to observe behaviours that have so far gone unnoticed.</p>
<p>The remoteness of Antarctic ecosystems can make it hard to connect with the wildlife there, but these advances in technology are helping to provide new windows into this icy world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286415/original/file-20190731-186809-4uod0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wild leopard seal lunging at scavenging seabirds off Bird Island, South Georgia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Robbins</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alistair Evans receives funding from Monash University and the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Hocking and James Robbins do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cooperation or theft? New observations show wild leopard seals sharing food when targeting king penguins in Antarctica.David Hocking, Postdoctoral fellow, Monash UniversityAlistair Evans, Associate Professor, Monash UniversityJames Robbins, Visiting researcher, University of PlymouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197322019-08-01T12:40:55Z2019-08-01T12:40:55ZGrudges come naturally to kids – gratitude must be taught<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286490/original/file-20190731-186814-a2phye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1120%2C300%2C4355%2C3126&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kids have no problem remembering who plays fair.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/boy-serious-offended-concept-childrens-emotions-1198736056">Natalia Lebedinskaia/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you heard this tale? In ancient times, an escaped slave hid in a cave only to encounter a wounded lion. Although afraid, the man helps the lion, removing a thorn from its paw. The lion is forever grateful, shares his food with the man and, eventually, saves his life.</p>
<p>If this millennia-old fable sounds familiar, you may have encountered it as a child. Variations of “<a href="https://www.bartleby.com/17/1/23.html">Androcles and the Lion</a>” appear in Aesop’s Fables and Roman folklore, and the story persists in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780140502770">children’s books today</a>.</p>
<p>Stories like these capitalize on a lesson that most people consider to be deeply natural and intuitive: “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Given the relevance of this proverb in daily life, like many psychologists before <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Rrq6vekAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">us</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zu9eT-YAAAAJ&hl=en">we</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tt4hKsQAAAAJ&hl=en">assumed</a> that this principle would be at play in the behavior even of young children.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/vjb6q">recent experiments</a> by our team suggest that reciprocity of this kind is neither natural nor intuitive: Young children showed almost no awareness that they should repay favors to those who helped them in the past.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lion remembers Androcles’ kindness and returns the favor down the road.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-_Androcles.jpg">Jean-Léon Gérôme/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Helping those who help you</h2>
<p>The principle of direct reciprocity – paying back those who have helped you in the past – is so central to everyday life that it’s often imbued with moral status. In many societies, including the U.S., <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021201">failure to return a favor</a> can be considered a great offense.</p>
<p>Beyond the personal level, researchers have argued that direct reciprocity can explain both the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2092623">success of communities</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.003">evolution of cooperation</a> more generally. We reasoned that if reciprocity is indeed something that evolved as a foundation of the way human beings interact with others, it should come naturally to young children.</p>
<p>To test this hypothesis, we designed a simple computer game for 4- to 8-year-olds. Children interacted with four avatars that we told them were other children playing the game. In one version of task, all of the “other children” received a sticker, leaving the child without any. But then one of the players gave their sticker to the child.</p>
<p>In the next phase of the game, the child received a second sticker which they could give to one of the other players. Surely, the most obvious choice would be to return the favor and give that sticker to their prior benefactor?</p>
<p>In fact, the answer was an unequivocal no. Even when forced to give their new sticker away, and even when interacting with people who were members of their same social group, children at all ages gave randomly to one of the other players. Their behavior showed no evidence of direct reciprocity.</p>
<p>Was there something wrong with our task? Or was it too difficult for young children to keep track of who had done what? It didn’t seem like it – when we asked them, nearly all the kids recalled who had given them a sticker.</p>
<p>We found this same effect several times in other groups of children, again finding no evidence that they respect the principle of “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”</p>
<p>Does this mean children never show direct reciprocity? Not exactly. In fact, they did, just in the form of grudges rather than gratitude.</p>
<h2>Paying back with a punishment</h2>
<p>Direct reciprocity actually comes in two flavors. In addition to the positive form of returning benefits – showing gratitude – there is a negative form of returning injuries – holding grudges. This negative form is also ensconced in proverbs, such as “An eye for an eye.”</p>
<p>We tested the negative form of direct reciprocity with a different group of children, who played a “stealing” version of the task.</p>
<p>Children started with a sticker which was then stolen by one of the four computer players. Later the other players had stickers and the child had the opportunity to take from one of them. Now children retaliated, often with relish, snatching a sticker from the thief in order to even the score.</p>
<p>Why were children of the same age eager to retaliate but unconcerned with returning a favor? Here too, memory errors or biases could not account for the phenomenon: Children were just as good at remembering the nice person as the mean person, but they only reciprocated in the case of negative behavior.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who should receive the sticker?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kid-gluing-sticker-on-applique-750057400">Dmytro Yashchuk/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An expectation that must be learned</h2>
<p>Young children may not respond to obligation, but researchers know they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.875">try to abide by social expectations</a>. We wondered if children were simply unaware of the norm of returning favors. Maybe it just doesn’t occur to them to reciprocate the benefits they received.</p>
<p>So, we asked them. We used the same game as before and children still received a sticker, but this time, we just asked “Whom should you give to?” In this case, kids in the oldest age group we looked at, 7- and 8-year-olds, did systematically pick the person who had given a sticker to them. Younger children chose the potential beneficiary at random; it appeared that they simply didn’t know the rule.</p>
<p>Our results suggested that young children must learn the principle of direct reciprocity in order to apply it.</p>
<p>We ran one last study to test this possibility. One group of children heard a story about two children who returned favors to each other, with this information presented in a prescriptive way: “I remember Tom gave me a sticker yesterday so I should do the same for him today.” A separate group of children heard a story about two children who engaged in positive actions, but not in any kind of reciprocal way.</p>
<p>Both groups of children then played the same game as before. It turned out children in the first group, who heard the reciprocity story, were much more likely to “pay back” the person who gave to them compared to the children who heard the second story about kind deeds. In other words, a simple story about gratitude was sufficient for children to start following the social norm of paying back favors.</p>
<p>So the upshot isn’t so grim after all: grudges may come more naturally than gratitude, but gratitude is readily learned. Perhaps, then, the reason why there are so many fables like “Androcles and the Lion” about reciprocity isn’t because the behavior comes so naturally. Instead, we need the fables precisely because it doesn’t.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=signupinsight">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter to get insight each day</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadia Chernyak received funding from the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Blake receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yarrow Dunham receives funding from The National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and the U.K. Ministry of Defence. </span></em></p>Do children understand the lesson that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours? Developmental psychologists suggest they’re more likely to punish bad behavior than they are to reward good deeds.Nadia Chernyak, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California, IrvinePeter Blake, Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston UniversityYarrow Dunham, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1106632019-04-30T10:44:18Z2019-04-30T10:44:18ZCollaborative problem solvers are made not born – here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271563/original/file-20190429-194609-mdphbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Group project experience doesn't automatically translate to competence at collaboration.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/g1Kr4Ozfoac">Brooke Cagle/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Challenges are a fact of life. Whether it’s a high-tech company figuring out how to shrink its carbon footprint, or a local community trying to identify new revenue sources, people are continually dealing with problems that require input from others. In the modern world, we face problems that are broad in scope and great in scale of impact – think of trying to understand and identify potential solutions related to climate change, cybersecurity or authoritarian leaders.</p>
<p>But people usually aren’t born competent in collaborative problem-solving. In fact, a famous turn of phrase about teams is that a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=jO17AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA359&dq=%22How+can+you+turn+a+team+of+experts+into+an+expert+team%22+Zsambok&ots=AXprcvw255&sig=OPr4vSa-NGPd70Q9Rw2us3MfEjE#v=onepage&q=%22How%20can%20you%20turn%20a%20team%20of%20experts%20into%20an%20expert%20team%22%20Zsambok&f=false">team of experts does not make an expert team</a>. Just as troubling, the evidence suggests that, for the most part, people aren’t being taught this skill either. A 2012 survey by the American Management Association found that higher level managers believed recent college graduates <a href="http://playbook.amanet.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2012-Critical-Skills-Survey-pdf.pdf">lack collaboration abilities</a>.</p>
<p>Maybe even worse, college grads seem to overestimate their own competence. One 2015 survey found nearly two-thirds of recent graduates believed they can effectively work in a team, but <a href="https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/LEAP/2015employerstudentsurvey.pdf">only one-third of managers agreed</a>. The tragic irony is that the less competent you are, the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/1999-15054-002">less accurate is your self-assessment</a> of your own competence. It seems that this infamous <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385522-0.00005-6">Dunning-Kruger effect</a> can also occur for teamwork. </p>
<p>Perhaps it’s no surprise that in a 2015 international assessment of hundreds of thousands of students, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264285521-en">less than 10% performed at the highest level of collaboration</a>. For example, the vast majority of students could not overcome teamwork obstacles or resolve conflict. They were not able to monitor group dynamics or to engage in the kind of actions needed to make sure the team interacted according to their roles. Given that all these students have had group learning opportunities in and out of school over many years, this points to a global deficit in the acquisition of collaboration skills. </p>
<p>How can this deficiency be addressed? What makes one team effective while another fails? How can educators improve training and testing of collaborative problem-solving? Drawing from disciplines that study cognition, collaboration and learning, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618808244">my colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t3O2u3MAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> have been studying teamwork processes. Based on this research, we have three key recommendations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271566/original/file-20190429-194633-1qkwi4q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Specific skills lay the groundwork for successful collaboration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/3V8xo5Gbusk">Kaleidico/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How it should work</h2>
<p>At the most general level, collaborative problem-solving requires team members to establish and maintain a shared understanding of the situation they’re facing and any relevant problem elements they’ve identified. At the start, there’s typically an uneven distribution of knowledge on a team. Members must maintain communication to help each other know who knows what, as well as help each other interpret elements of the problem and which expertise should be applied.</p>
<p>Then the team can get to work, laying out subtasks based upon member roles, or creating mechanisms to coordinate member actions. They’ll critique possible solutions to identify the most appropriate path forward. </p>
<p>Finally, at a higher level, collaborative problem-solving requires keeping the team organized – for example, by monitoring interactions and providing feedback to each other. Team members need, at least, basic interpersonal competencies that help them manage relationships within the team (like encouraging participation) and communication (like listening to learn). Even better is the more sophisticated ability to take others’ perspectives, in order to consider alternative views of problem elements.</p>
<p>Whether it is a team of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617697078">professionals in an organization</a> or a team of <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/19007">scientists solving complex scientific problems</a>, communicating clearly, managing conflict, understanding roles on a team, and knowing who knows what – all are collaboration skills related to effective teamwork. </p>
<h2>What’s going wrong in the classroom?</h2>
<p>When so many students are continually engaged in group projects, or collaborative learning, why are they not learning about teamwork? There are interrelated factors that may be creating graduates who collaborate poorly but who think they are quite good at teamwork.</p>
<p>I suggest students vastly overestimate their collaboration skills due to the dangerous combination of a lack of systematic instruction coupled with inadequate feedback. On the one hand, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0363-y">students engage in a great deal of group work</a> in high school and college. On the other hand, students rarely receive meaningful <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618808244">instruction, modeling and feedback on collaboration</a>. Decades of research on learning show that explicit instruction and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2011.11.003">feedback are crucial for mastery</a>.</p>
<p>Although classes that implement collaborative problem-solving do provide some instruction and feedback, it’s not necessarily about their teamwork. Students are learning about concepts in classes; they are acquiring knowledge about a domain. What is missing is something that forces them to explicitly reflect on their ability to work with others.</p>
<p>When students process feedback on how well they learned something, or whether they solved a problem, they mistakenly think this is also indicative of effective teamwork. I hypothesize that students come to conflate learning course content material in any group context with collaboration competency.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271641/original/file-20190430-194630-1hjqr20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Educators can do better at helping students learn collaborative problem-solving skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diverse-education-shoot-761566714">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A prescription for better collaborators</h2>
<p>Now that we’ve defined the problem, what can be done? A century of <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000142">research on team training</a>, combined with decades of research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543069001021">group learning in the classroom</a>, points the way forward. My colleagues and I have distilled some core elements from this literature to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618808244">suggest improvements for collaborative learning</a>. </p>
<p>First, most pressing is to get training on teamwork into the world’s classrooms. At a minimum, this needs to happen during college undergraduate education, but even better would be starting in high school or earlier. Research has demonstrated it’s possible to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496408317794">teach collaboration competencies</a> such as dealing with conflict and communicating to learn. Researchers and educators need, themselves, to collaborate to adapt these methods for the classroom.</p>
<p>Secondly, students need opportunities for practice. Although most already have experience working in groups, this needs to move beyond science and engineering classes. Students need to learn to work across disciplines so after graduation they can work across professions on solving complex societal problems.</p>
<p>Third, any systematic instruction and practice setting needs to include feedback. This is not simply feedback on whether they solved the problem or did well on learning course content. Rather, it needs to be feedback on interpersonal competencies that drive successful collaboration. Instructors should assess students on teamwork processes like relationship management, where they encourage participation from each other, as well as skills in communication where they actively listen to their teammates.</p>
<p>Even better would be feedback telling students how well they were able to take on the perspective of a teammate from another discipline. For example, was the engineering student able to take the view of a student in law and understand the legal ramifications of a new technology’s implementation? </p>
<p>My colleagues and I believe that explicit instruction on how to collaborate, opportunities for practice, and feedback about collaboration processes will better prepare today’s students to work together to solve tomorrow’s problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen M. Fiore has received funding from federal agencies such as NASA, ONR, DARPA, and the NSF to study collaborative problem solving and teamwork. He is past president of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research, currently a board member of the International Network for the Science of Team Science, and a member of DARPA's Information Science and Technology working group. </span></em></p>From the biggest ‘wicked’ problems on down, finding solutions to challenges depends on working together collaboratively. Students think they’re good at this, but they aren’t. Here’s what could help.Stephen M. Fiore, Professor of Cognitive Sciences, University of Central FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1160342019-04-26T10:50:50Z2019-04-26T10:50:50ZHow to avoid accidentally becoming a Russian agent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271071/original/file-20190425-121220-16y3niy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1871%2C1159&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">He's calling – but will you answer?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/59485/photos">Russian Presidential Executive Office</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>American citizens are unwittingly becoming Russian agents. That’s an unavoidable conclusion of Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf">Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election</a>, and an important problem that requires a change in thinking about how people interact on social media. Old adages like “Don’t talk to strangers” don’t really apply in a hyperconnected world. A more accurate replacement is perhaps even more worrying, though: “If you talk to strangers online, assume they are spies until proven otherwise.”</p>
<p>Facebook estimated that <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/30/media/russia-facebook-126-million-users/index.html">126 million Americans</a> saw one of <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/05/11/what-we-found-facebook-ads-russians-accused-election-meddling/602319002/">more than 3,500 Russian-purchased ads</a> on its site. Twitter identified <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/10/31/russia-ads-facebook-twitter-google-congress/">nearly 40,000 Russia-linked accounts</a> that issued 1.5 million tweets, which were viewed a total of 288 million times. As a <a href="https://newhouse.syr.edu/faculty-staff/jennifer-grygiel">social media researcher and educator</a>, this shows the scale of people’s exposure to state propaganda and the potential to influence public opinion. But that’s not the really bad news. </p>
<p>According to the Mueller report, some U.S. citizens even helped Russian government agents organize real-life events, aiding the propaganda campaign, possibly without knowing that’s what they were doing. There’s a whole section of the report called “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf#page=39">Targeting and Recruitment of U.S. Persons</a>,” detailing how Russian agents approached people through direct messages on social media, as part of their efforts to sow discord and division in order to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. </p>
<p>Mueller doesn’t say why these people let themselves be manipulated into participating. But this Russian victory, the co-opting of Americans against their own democratic processes, happened because the Russian government used old-school influence techniques on new social media platforms. Online predators with harmful agendas often use the same tricks, so learn to protect yourself.</p>
<h2>Cooperate cautiously</h2>
<p>Mainly, the Russians exploited what is called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0157">drive to cooperate</a>, an ingrained part of human nature that encourages people to work with others. It’s why you stop when you see someone stumble or drop something, or why you hold a door for a person carrying a lot of bags.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271069/original/file-20190425-121245-1pjssmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s natural to want to offer a helping hand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-helped-us-push-car-broken-266563883">TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This human trait may have been better suited for times when people didn’t interact so much online with strangers – but rather a world where people used to interact primarily in real life with family, friends, neighbors, colleagues and classmates. Now, though, online interactions link people across the world through targeted advertising, specific search results, social media hashtags and corporate algorithms that suggest who else a person should connect with. These connections may seem as strong as in-person ones, but they carry much more risk for exploitation of human kindness and the need for belonging.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, social media accounts aren’t verified, which is a means of authenticating that an online account matches the identity of an actual person or organization in real life. Accounts are often anonymous, and it’s very easy and common for people to set up <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-facebook-fakes-fraud-inauthentic-behavior-14860389">fake profiles</a> that look like a real person. It is difficult to know for certain whom you’re interacting with or what they actually want out of your connection. </p>
<p>Thankfully, research has shown that people have defense mechanisms to avoid deception or what platforms have dubbed “<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/facebook-removes-inauthentic-engagement-philippines-nic">inauthentic behavior</a>.” Americans being targeted by Russians aren’t just sitting ducks – they have innate skills, if they remember to use them.</p>
<h2>Reciprocate thoughtfully</h2>
<p>Research on influence and its abuse shows how persuasion works and focuses on principles such as <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/07/the-uses-and-abuses-of-influence">reciprocity</a> – the act of returning favors and things like gifts for mutual benefit. This can be a small gesture, like friends taking turns buying drinks for each other. Online, it could be even smaller: Seeing someone share your post or respond to a comment you made can cause you to want to reply or like the post on their page.</p>
<p>To avoid being duped, check things out before you reciprocate. If you and another person in an online group are interacting in public view – sharing posts and making and liking comments – it’s probably fine. But if they then send you a direct message asking for a favor or to run an errand, keep your wits about you. You still have no idea who they are, what they do for work, what their name might be or even what country they live in.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271068/original/file-20190425-121220-wjea8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If an online ‘friend’ asks you to dress up like Santa, maybe be skeptical.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/funny-santa-claus-wearing-red-costume-524102818">Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Be especially cautious if they, for instance, ask you to <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf#page=40">wear a Santa Claus suit and a mask of Donald Trump’s face</a> around your city. At least one American did this, according to the Mueller report. Consider Skyping them first, or seeing if they can speak to you without the aid of Google Translate or if their <a href="https://datingtips.match.com/online-dating-5471027.html">voice matches the gender</a> they state on their profile.</p>
<h2>Join forces skeptically</h2>
<p>The Russian government also targeted close-knit communities with strong senses of shared identity, which scholars call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2005.08.006">oneness</a>.” They created <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf#page=33">online groups and pages</a> that pretended to support and participate in the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQ communities.</p>
<p>It’s clear that any identity-based online group could prove an easy target, so be careful when joining and affiliating with them, especially if you do not personally know the organizers in real life.</p>
<p>There are so many different situations where influence techniques could exploit aspects of human nature that it’s impossible to outline all the potential scenarios. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=830&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271076/original/file-20190425-121245-ox4n6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An example of a Russian propaganda ad on Facebook.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://intelligence.house.gov/hpsci-11-1/">U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061241895/influence/">Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion</a>,” psychologist Robert Cialdini offers a general rule to help defend against being swept into an influence campaign: Be on guard if you have a feeling of liking a contact more quickly, or more deeply, than you would have expected. Simply put, trust warnings from your gut if you’re starting to notice things are moving really quickly with someone you barely know. That’s especially true if this is an online friend, and even more so if the person regularly posts images of identity-based memes (known as memeplexes), like bald eagles (patriotism memeplex), rainbows (LGBT memeplex) or Jesus (Christian memeplex).</p>
<p>In an age where governments sow global political instability by exploiting social media and interpersonal trust, it’s more important than ever to be skeptical of people you connect with – not only online, but in line at Starbucks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Grygiel owns a small number of shares in the following social media companies: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Alibaba, LinkedIn, YY and Snap.</span></em></p>The Mueller report reveals that some U.S. citizens helped Russian government agents organize real-life events, aiding Russia’s propaganda campaign. Don’t be like them.Jennifer Grygiel, Assistant Professor of Communications (Social Media) & Magazine, Syracuse UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1151052019-04-10T10:47:57Z2019-04-10T10:47:57ZEmpathy is the secret ingredient that makes cooperation – and civilization – possible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268466/original/file-20190409-2909-1xhbhyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=945%2C338%2C2948%2C2154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What goes into all for one and one for all?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/united-hands-close-up-black-white-333648788?src=f9ZsPuZmwUx5Z9EDJPp8Qg-1-5">Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human societies are so prosperous mostly because of how altruistic we are. Unlike other animals, people cooperate even with complete strangers. We share knowledge on Wikipedia, we show up to vote, and we work together to responsibly manage natural resources.</p>
<p>But where do these cooperative skills come from and why don’t our selfish instincts overwhelm them? Using a branch of mathematics called <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/game-theory-evolutionary-stable-strategies-and-the-25953132">evolutionary game theory</a> to explore this feature of human societies, my collaborators <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yi-SnYcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.44269">found that empathy</a> – a uniquely human capacity to take another person’s perspective – might be responsible for sustaining such extraordinarily high levels of cooperation in modern societies.</p>
<h2>Social rules of cooperation</h2>
<p>For decades scholars have thought that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.14.3.137">social norms and reputation</a> can explain much altruistic behavior. Humans are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301210110">far more likely</a> to be kind to individuals they see as “good,” than they are to people of “bad” reputation. If everyone agrees that being altruistic toward other cooperators earns you a good reputation, cooperation will persist.</p>
<p>This universal understanding of whom we see as morally good and worthy of cooperation is a form of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-norms/">social norm</a> – an invisible rule that guides social behavior and promotes cooperation. A common norm in human societies called “stern judging,” for instance, rewards cooperators who refuse to help bad people, but many other norms are possible.</p>
<p>This idea that you help one person and someone else helps you is called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04131">theory of indirect reciprocity</a>. However, it’s been built assuming that people always agree on each others’ reputations as they change over time. Moral reputations were presumed to be fully objective and publicly known. Imagine, for instance, an all-seeing institution monitoring people’s behavior and assigning reputations, like China’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/01/21/chinese-social-credit-score-utopian-big-data-bliss-or-black-mirror-on-steroids/#1cd4ebb748b8">social credit system</a>, in which people will be rewarded or sanctioned based on “social scores” calculated by the government.</p>
<p>But in most real-life communities, people often disagree about each others’ reputations. A person who appears good to me might seem like a bad individual from my friend’s perspective. My friend’s judgment might be based on a different social norm or a different observation than mine. This is why reputations in real societies are relative – people have different opinions about what is good or bad.</p>
<p>Using biology-inspired evolutionary models, I set out to investigate what happens in a more realistic setting. Can cooperation evolve when there are disagreements about what is considered good or bad? To answer this question, I first worked with mathematical descriptions of large societies, in which people could choose between various types of cooperative and selfish behaviors based on how beneficial they were. Later I used computer models to simulate social interactions in much smaller societies that more closely resemble human communities.</p>
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<p>The results of my modeling work were not encouraging: Overall, moral relativity made societies less altruistic. Cooperation almost vanished under most social norms. This meant that most of what was known about social norms promoting human cooperation may have been false.</p>
<h2>Evolution of empathy</h2>
<p>To find out what was missing from the dominant theory of altruism, I teamed up with <a href="http://mathbio.sas.upenn.edu/">Joshua Plotkin</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WANIT2oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">a theoretical biologist</a> at the University of Pennsylvania, and <a href="https://www.alexanderjstewart.org/">Alex Stewart</a> at the University of Houston, both <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Z3-RzE0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">experts in game theoretical approaches</a> to human behavior. We agreed that my pessimistic findings went against our intuition – most people do care about reputations and about the moral value of others’ actions. </p>
<p>But we also knew that humans have a remarkable ability to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373517699267">empathetically include other people’s views</a> when deciding that a certain behavior is morally good or bad. On some occasions, for instance, you might be tempted to judge an uncooperative person harshly, when you really shouldn’t if from their own perspective, cooperation was not the right thing to do.</p>
<p>This is when my colleagues and I decided to modify our models to give individuals the capacity for empathy – that is, the ability to make their moral evaluations from the perspective of another person. We also wanted individuals in our model to be able to learn how to be empathetic, simply by observing and copying personality traits of more successful people.</p>
<p>When we incorporated this type of <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.44269">empathetic perspective-taking into our equations</a>, cooperation rates skyrocketed; once again we observed altruism winning over selfish behavior. Even initially uncooperative societies in which everyone judged each other based mostly on their own selfish perspectives, eventually discovered empathy – it became socially contagious and spread throughout the population. Empathy made our model societies altruistic again.</p>
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<p>Moral psychologists have long suggested that <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wild-connections/201709/cultivating-empathy">empathy can act as social glue</a>, increasing cohesiveness and cooperation of human societies. Empathetic perspective-taking <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-understand-far-more-about-other-minds-than-long-believed-72711">starts developing in infancy</a>, and at least some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.740">aspects of empathy are learned</a> from parents and other members of the child’s social network. But how humans evolved empathy in the first place remained a mystery.</p>
<p>It is incredibly difficult to build rigorous theories about concepts of moral psychology as complex as empathy or trust. Our study offers a new way of thinking about empathy, by incorporating it into the well-studied framework of evolutionary game theory. Other moral emotions like guilt and shame can potentially be studied in the same way.</p>
<p>I hope that the link between empathy and human cooperation we discovered can soon be tested experimentally. Perspective-taking skills are most important in communities where many different backgrounds, cultures and norms intersect; this is where different individuals will have diverging views on what actions are morally good or bad. If the effect of empathy is as strong as our theory suggests, there could be ways to use our findings to promote large-scale cooperation in the long term – for instance, by designing nudges, interventions and policies that promote development of perspective-taking skills or at least encourage considering the views of those who are different.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arunas L. Radzvilavicius receives funding from David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the U.S.
Army Research Office. </span></em></p>Where do the cooperative skills that hold together human societies come from and why don’t our selfish instincts overwhelm them? Evolutionary game theory suggests that empathy is a crucial contributor.Arunas L. Radzvilavicius, Postdoctoral Researcher of Evolutionary Biology, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1058512018-11-01T03:44:13Z2018-11-01T03:44:13ZOne man’s trash: how using everyday items for play benefits kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243381/original/file-20181101-78462-3gnvyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Playing with every day items increases kids' creativity and engagement. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Primary school students have <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811047374">over 4,000</a> recess and lunch periods. This is a substantial period of time we can utilise to improve play habits and behaviour. </p>
<p>To enhance the quality of outdoor play, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-09/loose-parts-play-recycling-junk-into-creative-playgrounds/8506212">primary</a> <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/features/perth-schools-turn-playgrounds-into-junkyards-to-boost-creativity-ng-a233465df3da598e83d64cc1586e3f57">schools</a> <a href="http://www.norandaps.wa.edu.au/loose-parts-play/">across</a> <a href="https://wpssite.wordpress.com/2016/03/24/loose-parts-play-at-wardie/">Australia</a> are moving away from more traditional, fixed school play facilities (such as monkey bars and slides) and embracing everyday equipment.</p>
<p>This includes loose, recycled or scrap parts (blocks for climbing/building, tunnels, pipes, crates, foam, rubber and plastic parts) and sports equipment (balls, bats, boards and hoops). The equipment can be transformed according to students’ play needs over time. </p>
<p>Sourced from households and the community, the equipment strategy has been recognised as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-2452-4">cost-effective</a>, <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">sustainable</a> and continues to produce <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14729679.2018.1436078">cognitive</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2017.1348319">social</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/josh.12550">physical</a> benefits for primary school students.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-just-let-them-play-24670">Should we just let them play?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The benefit of every day items for play</h2>
<p>Australian research has found the introduction of everyday equipment into outdoor school spaces has resulted in significant increases in primary school students’ physical <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009174351300042X">activity</a> <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.25.3.0109#metadata_info_tab_contents">intensity</a> during active play, <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1471-2458-14-164">step counts</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14729679.2017.1347048">types</a> (and complexity) of play, physical quality of life, <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1471-2458-14-164">enjoyment</a> and can complement the national <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03004279.2016.1152282">curriculum</a>. </p>
<p>Students have used the movable equipment to work <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2017.1348319">cooperatively</a> in different team <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">roles</a> to design, plan, construct, observe, negotiate and learn from each other to discover new ideas to solve problems. </p>
<p><a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">Teachers</a> <a href="http://www.playengland.org.uk/media/340836/supporting_school_improvement_through_play.pdf">have</a> <a href="https://www.playpods.co.uk/s/CSS-Head-Teachers-Report-Branded.pdf">reported</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14729679.2017.1286993">improvements</a> in social inclusion, behaviour, staff/student happiness, confidence, self esteem, levels of aggression, injury and bullying incidences from introducing everyday equipment. <a href="https://www.playpods.co.uk/s/CSS-Head-Teachers-Report-Branded.pdf">Head teachers</a> in the United Kingdom have even reported improvements in students’ classroom engagement. </p>
<p>Research is unveiling that everyday equipment can align with the play <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14733285.2018.1463430">needs</a> of girls within school spaces, as girls tend to <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/jpp/2015/00000002/00000002/art00002">enjoy</a> play opportunities that are more creative, imaginative and social. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Scrapstore Play Pod in Action in the United Kingdom.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/play-based-learning-can-set-your-child-up-for-success-at-school-and-beyond-91393">Play-based learning can set your child up for success at school and beyond</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Creative potential</h2>
<p>The introduction of every day “mobile” equipment has the potential to
improve students’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760802699878">creativity</a> and initiative by increasing the number of play <a href="https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/SDEC/article/view/1204">variables</a> (such as colours, shapes, sizes, types, quantities, potential locations) available. Students can then take advantage of increased play options to make their own games, discoveries and obstacle courses.</p>
<p>With more play options, students are more challenged, preventing frustration and boredom. Boredom can <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss6/4/">result</a> from being exposed to the same fixed playground equipment lodged in the same location year after year. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Every day equipment in action at an Australian Primary School.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/being-in-nature-is-good-for-learning-heres-how-to-get-kids-off-screens-and-outside-104935">Being in nature is good for learning, here's how to get kids off screens and outside</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can parents do at home?</h2>
<p>Because everyday equipment is sourced from homes, play can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-164">replicated</a> beyond school time. Here are a few tips:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>make sure kids have enough space for <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">multiple play areas</a> to <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol40/iss6/4">avoid</a> collisions </p></li>
<li><p>ensure the area is clear of any hazards such as wires and glass. Grass areas with trees <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">are best</a>, allowing a softer surface for landing. Hard-surface undercover areas can be an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-164">alternative</a> during wet conditions</p></li>
<li><p>source movable equipment from either the home or <a href="https://harmonyps.wa.edu.au/2018/06/19/loose-parts-play/">community</a>, including milk crates, pipes, plastic sheets, tyre tubes, wooden planks, plastic sheets, assorted play balls, bats and rope. Cardboard boxes and plastic objects such as buckets, baskets and hula hoops can be useful short-term play options, but can be less <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">sustainable</a></p></li>
<li><p>start by introducing around five <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">types</a> of equipment and occasionally add <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/josh.12550">more</a> items over time. Teachers have reported this strategy works better than giving too many options at once </p></li>
<li><p>provide a large storage area (container, <a href="https://www.playpods.co.uk/s/CSS-Head-Teachers-Report-Branded.pdf">pod</a> or cage) to put all the equipment away at the end of the the week, session or before rainy weather. <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2043610617694731">Cardboard</a> boxes can go out of shape quickly, especially with rain. </p></li>
<li><p>although supervision is important, make sure children can direct their own play without too much adult intervention. <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/9/3134/htm">Self-directed</a> play and providing adequate levels of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760802699878">risk</a> and challenge is vital for children’s <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/9/3134/htm">development</a>. Adults also need to be accepting that it could get <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2017.1286993">messy</a></p></li>
<li><p>have a <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol39/iss1/6/">rule</a> that allows kids to have specific equipment for the entire week and then be distributed to others the following week. Consider rules such as no <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760802699878">stacking</a> or jumping from equipment above waist height on harder surfaces</p></li>
<li><p>have a routine for an adult to regularly check for any <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760802699878">damaged</a> equipment (such as removing equipment with wooden/plastic splinters). The adult can also reflect on how the children are using the equipment (for example, consider if anything should be added or removed to aid the play structures). </p></li>
</ol>
<p>We need to give kids more space to be creative, especially in outdoor school spaces, to develop the cognitive, social and physical capabilities they’ll need into adulthood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendon Hyndman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recycled or scrap parts including tunnels, pipes, crates, foam, rubber and plastic parts make for better play equipment for kids than a fixed swing set.Brendon Hyndman, Senior Lecturer and Course Director of Postgraduate Studies in Education, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.