Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 7: Prize Session: Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics (YSA)

SOE 7.2: Prize Talk

Monday, March 16, 2015, 17:00–17:45, MA 001

For cooperation please add: Carrots, sticks, both, or neither? — •Matjaz Perc — Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Widespread cooperation among unrelated individuals distinguishes humans markedly from other species. The origins of our remarkable other-regarding abilities have been associated with rearing offspring that survived, which was a pressing challenge during the Paleolithic age that could not be met by individual efforts alone. But in the absence of such a challenge, what keeps us cooperating? Reciprocity is long considered an important piece of the puzzle. If someone is kind to us, we are kind in return. We reward cooperation. On the other hand, if someone is unfair or exploitative, we tend to retaliate. We punish defection. And according to the strong reciprocity hypothesis, positive and negative reciprocity are correlated to give us optimal evolutionary predispositions for the successful evolution of cooperation. But is this really true? Should we reward and punish, or should we do just one of the two, or maybe neither? Recent economic experiments reject the strong reciprocity hypothesis, and everyday experience also leaves us with the impression that people and institutions will either reward cooperation or punish defection, but seldom will they do both. I will show how methods of statistical physics might contribute to the resolution of the stick versus carrot dilemma.