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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 5018–5021Cite as

Social Cooperation

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Definition

Interaction(s) among two or more actors, leading to the increased fitness of the parties involved.

Introduction

Cooperation has been considered an evolutionary conundrum, wherein according to evolutionary theory free-riders accrue greater individual payoffs in comparison to cooperators in social interaction (Dawkins 2006). This imbalance is considered to allow cheaters to invade a population, driving cooperative strategies to extinction. Socioecological pressures have also been found to promote the emergence of defection, as inter-individual interactions that involve cheating, manipulation, or simply lack of cooperative efforts have been found to be associated with unstable and unpredictable ecologies for which long-term investments (including investments in long-term cooperative relationships or community efforts) do not offer reliable rewards (Figueredo et al. 2006).

With the purpose of solving this biological conundrum, numerous perspectives have been developed in the...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre & Heitor B. F. Fernandes

  2. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    James Zerbe

Authors
  1. Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre
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  2. James Zerbe
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  3. Heitor B. F. Fernandes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mateo Peñaherrera-Aguirre .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Jon Sefcek

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Peñaherrera-Aguirre, M., Zerbe, J., Fernandes, H.B.F. (2020). Social Cooperation. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1578

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