Science & the Big Questions

Can Artificial Intelligence Help Us Make Better Decisions During a Crisis?

New research indicates that AI may help people cooperate and make ethical decisions faster and with fewer errors.

Medium

Topics: Cooperation Decision-Making Ethics Morality

How to Mix Compassion and Cooperation Into Social Distancing

COVID-19 is threatening our social ties because it scrambles the ways we normally support our friends and communities.

Los Angeles Times

Topics: Bonding Compassion Cooperation David DeSteno Emotion Gratitude Resilience

Mass Panic Is Unlikely, Even During a Pandemic

Hollywood tells us humans are prone to lose all rationality in a disaster, looting and trampling one another. But that’s not giving our brains any credit.

WIRED

Topics: Altruism Cooperation Decision-Making Rationality Resilience Social Inequality

Why Do We Laugh?

We laugh even before we can speak. But why? Science has some answers to the mystery of human laughter, and some of them might surprise you.

Quick and Dirty Tips, Scientific American

Topics: Bonding Cooperation

Gratitude Helps You Cooperate. Does It Also Make You a Sucker?

The clear signal of honest, generous intent that comes with feeling and expressing gratitude can cut both ways. Having more “cooperators” in a group means there are more opportunities for these good people to work together. But it also means there are more opportunities for bad actors to exploit.

Behavioral Scientist

Topics: Cooperation David DeSteno Emotion Fairness Generosity Gratitude Honesty Trust

People Don’t Learn to Trust Bots

AI elicits better cooperation through deception.

Scientific American

Topics: Bias Cooperation Trust

Is Rationality Overrated?

Sometimes, it’s better to be reasonable.

Future Perfect, Vox

Topics: Cooperation Decision-Making Morality Rationality

“Marshmallow Test” Redux: New Research Reveals Children Show Better Self-Control When They Depend on Each Other

Children are more likely to control their immediate impulses when they and a peer rely on each other to get a reward than when they’re left to their own willpower, new research indicates.

Association for Psychological Science

Topics: Cooperation Self-Control Social Behavior Trust Willpower

Early Humans Domesticated Themselves, New Genetic Evidence Suggests

Humans may lack the large, pronounced facial features of our primate ancestors like Neanderthals because we have “self-domesticated.”

Science

Topics: Cooperation Genes Human Evolution

Revenge Is Bittersweet at Best

Research is starting to reveal how the urge for vengeance may have evolved, when it can be useful, and what could prevent the violence it can provoke.

Knowable Magazine

Topics: Cooperation Cultural Evolution Group Conflict Reputation Revenge

Humans Are Wired for Goodness

We’re not as bad as the headlines make us out to be.

Nautilus

Topics: Altruism Cooperation Group Conflict Social Behavior Tribalism

Grudges Come Naturally to Kids — Gratitude Must Be Taught

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.

The Conversation

Topics: Altruism Cognitive Development Cooperation

WeChat Is Running a Natural Experiment in Human Generosity

Altruism is a puzzle for behavioral biologists. Now the largest-ever study of pay-it-forward reciprocity is throwing new light on the phenomenon.

Emerging Technology from the arXiv, MIT Technology Review

Topics: Altruism Cooperation Generosity Social Behavior Social Networks

Gorillas Have Developed Humanlike Social Structure, Controversial Study Suggests

Finding challenges when complex hierarchies arose in great apes.

Science

Topics: Animal Studies Cooperation Social Behavior Social Cognition

How Neuroscience Shows the Highs and Lows of Humanity

Here’s what neuroscience and psychology have to say about how people humanize and dehumanize one another.

Big Think

Topics: Adam Waytz Cooperation Group Conflict

Six Degrees of Separation at Burning Man

What an experiment in the desert taught scientists about social networks and human cooperation.

Nautilus

Topics: Cooperation Creativity Social Networks

Collaboration and the Evolution of Disciplines

A talk by Robert Axelrod.

Edge

Topics: Cooperation

Why Meerkats and Mongooses Have a Cooperative Approach to Raising Their Pups

Studies of these cooperative creatures are revealing how this highly social behavior evolved and is shedding light on the roots of our own species’ collaborative abilities.

Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine

Topics: Animal Studies Cooperation Social Behavior

Being Empathic Doesn’t Make You a Pushover

A new study finds that more prosocial people are less aggressive in competition — but they tend to win out in the long run.

Greater Good Magazine

Topics: Cooperation Decision-Making Empathy

DeepMind Teaches AI Teamwork

AIs that were given a “social” drive and rewarded for influence learned to cooperate.

IEEE Spectrum

Topics: Cooperation Robots

What Young Kids Already Know About Forgiveness

A new study suggests that preschoolers prefer people who are forgiving.