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Updated: Dec 10, 2025
06:48
The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
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Human social preferences cluster and spread in the field
Alexander Ehlert1,2, Martin Kindschi2,3, René Algesheimer2,4
1Institute of Sociology, University of Zurich, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland; alexander.ehlert@uzh.ch.
Summary
Cooperative preferences spread through social environments, fostering large-scale human cooperation. Being in a cooperative setting enhances individual prosociality, leading to the formation of cooperative clusters in real-world social networks.
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Behavioral Economics
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Human large-scale cooperation is unique but faces exploitation risks.
- Social networks may facilitate cooperation by enabling cooperator clustering.
- Limited evidence exists on social networks' role in real-world cooperation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of real-world social networks in developing prosociality.
- To examine the emergence of cooperative clusters in natural social settings.
- To differentiate the impact of environment versus partner choice on cooperation.
Main Methods:
- Studied intrinsic social preferences and friendship patterns in 57 new school classes (n=1,217).
- Utilized incentivized measures to assess social preferences and cooperation.
- Analyzed data from real-world social networks, not just controlled experiments.
Main Results:
- Confirmed the existence and emergence of cooperative clusters in society.
- Demonstrated that cooperative environments significantly enhance individual social preferences.
- Found that partner choice has a minimal impact on the emergence of cooperative clusters.
Conclusions:
- Cooperative preferences are contagious and influenced by social and cultural learning.
- Embeddedness in cooperative environments is a key driver for developing prosociality.
- Social learning plays a vital role in the evolution of cooperation.
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