Cooperation in organisms, whether bacteria or primates, has been a difficulty for evolutionary theory since Darwin. On the assumption that interactions between pairs of individuals occur on a probabilistic basis, a model is developed based on the concept of an evolutionarily stable strategy in the context of the Prisoner's Dilemma game. Deductions from the model, and the results of a computer tournament show how cooperation based on reciprocity can get started in an asocial world, can thrive while interacting with a wide range of other strategies, and can resist invasion once fully established. Potential applications include specific aspects of territoriality, mating, and disease.

The Evolution of Cooperation

We build a theory of prosocial behavior that combines heterogeneity in individual altruism and greed with concerns for social reputation or self-respect. The presence of rewards or punishments creates doubt as to the true motive for which good deeds are performed, and this "overjustification effect" can result in a net crowding out of prosocial behavior by extrinsic incentives. The model also allows us to identify settings that are conducive to multiple social norms of behavior, and those where disclosing one's generosity may backfire. Finally, we analyze the equilibrium contracts offered by sponsors, including the level and confidentiality or publicity of incentives. Sponsor competition may cause rewards to bid down rather than up, and can even reduce social welfare by requiring agents to engage in inefficient sacrifices.

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Incentives and Prosocial Behavior

Drawing on experimental economics, anthropology, social psychology, sociology, history, the theory of cultural evolution as well as more conventional economic sources, I review models and evidence concerning the impact of economic institutions on preferences, broadly construed. I identify a number of ways in which the form of economic organization of a society appears to influence the process of human development by shaping tastes, the framing of choice situations, psychological dispositions, values, and other determinants of individual behavior. I conclude by commenting on some implications for economic theory and policy analysis.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2564952.pdf

Endogenous Preferences: The Cultural Consequences of Markets and Other Economic Institutions

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have enabled the rise of so-called “Collaborative Consumption” (CC): the peer-to-peer-based activity of obtaining, giving, or sharing the access to goods and services, coordinated through community-based online services. CC has been expected to alleviate societal problems such as hyper-consumption, pollution, and poverty by lowering the cost of economic coordination within communities. However, beyond anecdotal evidence, there is a dearth of understanding why people participate in CC. Therefore, in this article we investigate people’s motivations to participate in CC. The study employs survey data (N = 168) gathered from people registered onto a CC site. The results show that participation in CC is motivated by many factors such as its sustainability, enjoyment of the activity as well as economic gains. An interesting detail in the result is that sustainability is not directly associated with participation unless it is at the same time also associated with positive attitudes towards CC. This suggests that sustainability might only be an important factor for those people for whom ecological consumption is important. Furthermore, the results suggest that in CC an attitudebehavior gap might exist; people perceive the activity positively and say good things about it, but this good attitude does not necessary translate into action.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2400947_code1027719.pdf?abstractid=2271971&mirid=2

The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption

To Have or to Be

Professor Titmuss, an eminent English social theorist, believes that man is inherently altruistic and that the duty of government is to create that social and economic climate which best channels man's drive to work together for the common good. In support of this belief, he has written a book about the procurement, distribution, and transfusion of human blood, a medical topic which he employs as an illustrative social and economic microcosm. The conclusion he reaches is foregone: "The voluntary socialized system in Britain is economically, professionally, administratively and qualitatively more efficient than the mixed, commercialized, and individualistic American system" (Titmuss, R.M: "Why Give to Strangers?" Lancet 1 :123-125, 1971). As the book was written with a bias, so will it be read with bias. My own bias is that of an American and a blood-banker. I am only too conscious of many deficiencies in the American complex of arrangements—it isn't

The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy

In publishing this monumental reference, Oxford Press and Professor Mourant and his associates have saved many researchers countless hours of literature search. There are 661 pages of tabulated data and 68 pages of bibliography, not including the republication of the complete monographThe ABO Blood Groupsby the same authors, first published by Blackwell's in 1958. Most readers will head first for Mourant's pithy summaries of all these numbers. Superb on blood groups, competent on proteins and enzymes, Mourant puts isolated and featureless population studies into a working framework. There is a separate chapter for each major blood group system and protein polymorphism, followed by chapters considering the blood group distributions in different geographic and population categories. Red cell blood groups are the major focus, especially ABO and Rh; haptoglobulins, transferrins, lipoproteins, and enzyme systems occupy a decidedly secondary position. Histocompatibility antigens and hemoglobin variants have been deliberately omitted. Essential

The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups and Other Polymorphisms

Like soap and cigarette manufacturers, publishing houses now have active competition among their own products. Saunders has two Big Books of clinical pathology running concurrently: the present volume, and theTodd-Sanford Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods, edited by Davidsohn and Henry. The two are altogether comparable in size and price. The titles provide an important clue to each book's goal. Davidsohn and Henry's title page emphasizesClinical Diagnosis, while Lynch et al stress the wordsMedical Laboratory Technology. By implication, the former is for the physician, the interpreter; the latter for the technologist, the doer. To a considerable degree this premise is true; more detailed and more numerous technical sections will be found in Lynch's book. A more important reason for Lynch et al's success is the skill with which the authors combine theoretical material with practical details. Pressures of space require all multidiscipline laboratory books to adopt a compact,

Medical Laboratory Technology and Clinical Pathology

So rapid is the progress in the fields of immunity and autoimmune diseases that the general reader, if he merely stands still, is in fact falling behind by leaps and bounds. Consequently, this new book from England fills a real need. The authors have assembled and organized an enormous group of studies, some isolated, some interrelated, and have produced a coherent, comprehensive review of the present status of autoimmune mechanisms and their actual or possible relationship to many disease states. The first section summarizes the theoretical problems of immunity in general and autoimmunity in particular, giving an unusually lucid account of the protein chemistry involved. Detailed and perceptive discussions of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, those classical embodiments of all that is puzzling in the field, emphasize the practical applications of basic science to clinical medicine. In subsequent chapters, the many studies relating to diseases of individual organs are

/pdf/autoimmunity-and-disease-17k5mxhq2w.pdf

Autoimmunity and Disease

The collected papers of so gifted and prolific a worker as A. S. Wiener cannot fail to be both significant and exciting. This volume reprints many of Wiener's recent publications, largely dating from 1961 to 1965, although several much earlier papers are included for their historical interest. Advances in Blood Grouping is a podium from which Wiener discusses, in tones clearly audible at the back of the room, the many topics which have engaged his energies. Not surprisingly, much discussion centers on terminology and the theoretical implications of nomenclature. Wiener devotes considerable zeal to the abuses of blood grouping data as support for various epidemiological and genetic theories. His continuing plea is for meticulous serologic technique, to be interpreted by experts thoroughly conversant with the pitfalls and ramifications of serologic investigation. Other topics include the blood groups of nonhuman primates, the ABO and Lewis groups in man, M-N types, and

Frances K. Widmann

Papers

The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy

The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups and Other Polymorphisms

Medical Laboratory Technology and Clinical Pathology

Autoimmunity and Disease

Advances in Blood Grouping (II)