Human cooperation and the complexity of moral codes

Abstract

[Excerpt] Explaining the emergence of cooperation remains a fundamental challenge amongst many areas of science. When paying a cost (e.g., money, time, energy) is required to help others, cooperation often constitutes a social dilemma: society benefits if everyone cooperates however, given the cost involved, individuals are tempted to defect. Theoretical and experimental works have shown that reputations may solve this cooperation conundrum. These features are of ten framed in the context of indirect reciprocity (IR), which constitutes the most elaborate, cognitively demanding, and specifically human mechanism of cooperation discovered so far. By helping someone, individuals may increase their reputation, which can change the predisposition of others to help them in the future. The reputation of an individual depends, in turn, on the social norms that establish what characterises a good or bad action, providing a basis for morality. [...]