Recordkeeping alters economic history by promoting reciprocity.
We experimentally demonstrate a causal link between recordkeeping and reciprocal exchange. Recordkeeping improves memory of past interactions in a complex exchange environment, which promotes reputation formation and decision coordination. Economies with recordkeeping exhibit a beneficially altered economic history where the risks of exchanging with strangers are substantially lessened. Our findings are consistent with prior assertions that complex and extensive reciprocity requires sophisticated memory to store information on past transactions. We offer insights on this research by scientifically demonstrating that reciprocity can be facilitated by information storage external to the brain. This is consistent with the archaeological record, which suggests that prehistoric transaction records and the invention of writing for recordkeeping were linked to increased complexity in human interaction.
Basu
Sudipta
S
Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, 1810 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Dickhaut
John
J
Hecht
Gary
G
Towry
Kristy
K
Waymire
Gregory
G
D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004467:Economics; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008568:Memory; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011996:Records; D012306:Risk; D013997:Time Factors