Tag: social networks

• March 20, 2010

  Cooperation: Rewarding, Contagious, & Cascading

  We see evidence of conflict and competition all around us. It seems inevitable and depressing. So, the question that remains is – why does cooperation exist at all? Well, science is now coming out with exciting discoveries about the nature and spread of cooperation that may paint a more uplifting and hopeful picture.

  A Biological Basis for Cooperation:

  Using the latest technology, brain imaging experiments at Emory University have now revealed a biological basis for cooperation. These studies show, for the first time, that social cooperation is intrinsically rewarding to the human brain, even in the face of pressures to the contrary. This suggests that the altruistic drive to cooperate is embedded in humans – either genetically programmed or acquired through socialization. In other words, reciprocal altruism activates a reward circuit that motivates us to persist with cooperative social interactions. These results also suggest possible ways to study conflict by …