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Cooperation

Cooperation can be defined as the process of working or acting together toward the same ends or goals that have mutual benefits. It is an individual behavior that benefits a group or collective. Cooperation contrasts with competition that is defined as working for one’s own benefit. Important considerations in the definition of cooperation are the notions that those involved are working together to achieve a common goal and that these efforts are usually voluntary.

Cooperation is seen in many distinct species—from insects to humans. In addition, cooperation is seen in people across all stages of the lifespan, in groups of people, in companies and other social institutions, as well as in nations. But why do people cooperate when it sometimes involves making personal sacrifices to cooperate with others? How does cooperation develop across the lifespan? And why do people cooperate when they often could benefit more by being selfish? The answers to these questions are addressed in this entry.

Comparative Perspectives on Cooperation

Many types of animals cooperate. Cooperation has been seen in fish, insects, birds, and in many mammals. Often (but not always), cooperation among animals reflects kin selection—in which individual animals help rear relatives’ offspring to enhance their own lineage. Thus, in most nonhuman animals, cooperative behavior occurs in context of high familial relatedness, usually between immediate family members. Moreover, the closer the familial relatedness, the more likely cooperation occurs (e.g., cooperation is more likely with siblings than with cousins).

For humans, cooperative behavior is much broader and serves a larger purpose than is the case for most other animal groups. In fact, human societies are built on a foundation of collaborative activities, and the ability to cooperate is considered a critical developmental achievement. Although some animal groups are cooperative, humans appear to have a unique preference for collaborating. For example, human children prefer to work together with other children to obtain food, but chimpanzees show no preference. Despite having cognitive skills that enable them to solve problems collaboratively, chimpanzees do not choose to collaborate as often as do human children.

Moreover, human brains respond positively to cooperative interactions; neuroimaging studies have shown activation in the reward regions of the brain in response to cooperative partners and cooperative play. Such research raises the possibility that humans have specialized cognitive, motivational, and neural mechanisms that enable them to engage in collaborative interactions and efforts with others to achieve mutual goals.

The Development of Cooperation in Humans

In humans, the capacity to cooperate and engage others in cooperative ways begins early in life. During early childhood, human children become increasingly skillful and effective collaborators; they recognize when they or others need help in solving problems and actively participate as collaborators to address those problems. Soon after birth, human infants begin engaging with another person (e.g., caregiver) in coordinated, turn-taking sequences. Beginning around 6 months of age, infants’ interactions become more complex, and often they are involved in cooperative games that rely on ritualized interactions with adults and older children (such as peekaboo).

Toward the middle to the end of the second year of life, children become much more skillful in spontaneously generating coordinated actions in nonritualized interactions (such as throwing a ball). The changes during the preschool years (2–5 years) reflect children’s rapid growth in social understanding, joint attention, and self-regulation, and these changes transform many aspects of social behavior. As a result, children’s play becomes less solitary and increasingly cooperative—with periods of cooperative play growing longer and more complex and coherent with age.

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