title: Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation.
abstract: Studies of animal behavior consistently demonstrate that the social environment impacts cooperation, yet the effect of social dynamics has been largely excluded from studies of human cooperation. Here, we introduce a novel approach inspired by nonhuman primate research to address how social hierarchies impact human cooperation. Participants competed to earn hierarchy positions and then could cooperate with another individual in the hierarchy by investing in a common effort. Cooperation was achieved if the combined investments exceeded a threshold, and the higher ranked individual distributed the spoils unless control was contested by the partner. Compared to a condition lacking hierarchy, cooperation declined in the presence of a hierarchy due to a decrease in investment by lower ranked individuals. Furthermore, hierarchy was detrimental to cooperation regardless of whether it was earned or arbitrary. These findings mirror results from nonhuman primates and demonstrate that hierarchies are detrimental to cooperation. However, these results deviate from nonhuman primate findings by demonstrating that human behavior is responsive to changing hierarchical structures and suggests partnership dynamics that may improve cooperation. This work introduces a controlled way to investigate the social influences on human behavior, and demonstrates the evolutionary continuity of human behavior with other primate species.
authors.affiliation: Lincoln Park Zoo, Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Great Apes, Chicago, IL 60614, USA.|Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Comparative Cognitive Anthropology Group, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Cronin
authors.affiliation: Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Acheson
authors.affiliation: Universitat de València, ERI-CES, Departamento de Análisis Económico, Spain.
authors.forename: Penélope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.affiliation: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC), Departamento de Matemáticas, and Institute UC3M-BS of Financial Big Data, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain.|Universidad de Zaragoza, Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), 50018 Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D005716:Game Theory; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult