Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 12, 2026
14:44
Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration
Published on: June 7, 2024
2.5K
Think global, act local: Preserving the global commons.
Oliver P Hauser1,2, Achim Hendriks3, David G Rand4,5,6
1Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Scientific Reports
|November 4, 2016
Summary
Cooperation in large groups is possible through "local-to-global" reciprocity. This method uses localized interactions to sustain contributions to global public goods, even in groups of 1,000 people.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Behavioral Economics
- Game Theory
Background:
- Global public goods preservation requires large-scale cooperation.
- Standard reciprocity mechanisms are less effective in large groups, hindering cooperation.
- Novel strategies are needed to foster cooperation in large-scale public goods games (PGGs).
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a method for maintaining cooperation in large-scale PGGs using reciprocity.
- To investigate the effectiveness of "local-to-global" reciprocity in sustaining public contributions.
- To test the scalability of this cooperation mechanism in very large groups.
Main Methods:
- Participants played a PGG with a Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) element involving nearest neighbors on a network.
- In the treatment, participants could adjust PD cooperation based on neighbors' PGG contributions.
- A control group lacked information about neighbors' PGG contributions.
Main Results:
- The "local-to-global" reciprocity strategy successfully maintained cooperation in the PGG.
- Participants reduced PD cooperation with low PGG contributors, incentivizing increased PGG contributions.
- Cooperation declined sharply in the control group, highlighting the treatment's effectiveness.
- The method scaled effectively to a 1,000-person PGG.
Conclusions:
- "Local-to-global" reciprocity is an effective mechanism for sustaining large-scale cooperation.
- This intervention leverages local interactions to enforce global public goods provision.
- The findings offer a practical approach to promoting cooperation in large populations.
Related Concept Videos
02:07Conservation of Declining Populations
13.5K
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.
13.5K
01:43Sustainable Development
15.4K
As the human population continues to grow and use resources, we must be mindful of our planet’s natural limits. Sustainable development provides a pathway to maintain and improve human life now while also ensuring that future generations will have the resources that they need. The long-term success of sustainability efforts rests on understanding the interplay between human actions and ecological systems.
15.4K
02:04Conservation of Small Populations
17.6K
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less...
17.6K
01:24Biodiversity and Human Values
17.6K
Human civilization relies on biodiversity in many ways. Sudden changes in species biodiversity result in environmental changes that can modify weather patterns and therefore human civilizations.
17.6K
01:50Global Climate Change
29.4K
Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past.
29.4K
01:50Threats to Biodiversity
27.7K
There have been five major extinction events throughout geological history, resulting in the elimination of biodiversity, followed by a rebound of species that adapted to the new conditions. In the current geological epoch, the Holocene, there is a sixth extinction event in progress. This mass extinction has been attributed to human activities and is thus provisionally called the Anthropocene. In 2019 the human population reached 7.7 billion people and is projected to comprise 10 billion by...
27.7K