Providing incentives to cooperate can turn swords into ploughshares

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - 04:31 in Psychology & Sociology

When two individuals face off in conflict, the classic problem in evolutionary biology known as the prisoner's dilemma says that the individuals are not likely to cooperate even if it is in their best interests to do so. But a new study suggests that with incentives to cooperate, natural selection can minimize conflict, changing the game from one of pure conflict to one of partial cooperation.

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