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The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
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Joint commitment in human cooperative hunting through an 'imagined we'
Ning Tang1, Siyi Gong2, Minglu Zhao3
1Department of Psychology, Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.
Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|September 23, 2025
Summary
Humans achieve cooperation through joint commitment to a single goal, not just reward sharing. This finding was demonstrated in a multi-player hunting game using computational modeling and psychophysics.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Neuroscience
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Cooperation requires joint goal selection and commitment.
- Existing models often focus on reward sharing, potentially overlooking commitment mechanisms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of joint commitment in cooperative goal pursuit.
- To compare an 'imagined we' (IW) model of joint commitment against a reward sharing model.
Main Methods:
- Multi-player hunting game simulation.
- Psychophysical analysis of agent behavior.
- Computational modeling using the 'imagined we' approach.
Main Results:
- Both human participants and the IW model maintained high performance by committing to a single prey.
- The reward sharing model failed to achieve comparable performance.
- IW agents demonstrated cooperation with both AI and human players.
Conclusions:
- Joint commitment, enforced by an 'imagined we' representation, is a key mechanism for human cooperation.
- Cooperation is driven by shared goals rather than solely by reward distribution.
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