Recently, I read “The Cooperation Instinct,” an article in the Discover magazine. In it, Kristin Ohlson explained Martin Nowak’s analysis of why humans cooperate and don’t simply fight each other. Nowak, combining mathematics with evolution, created a scientific model of the prisoner’s dilemma, where two criminals are charged with a crime and placed in separate rooms. If both prisoners ‘defect,’ incriminating each other, they are charged with three years in prison. If neither criminal defects, both are given only a two-year sentence. However, if one criminal defects and the other doesn’t, the defector gets only one year in prison and the criminal who didn’t gets four. Clearly, defecting is more beneficial — so why do people cooperate? In the past, biologists have attributed it to inclusive fitness, the theory that people die to save their kind, to protect their genes, but Nowak suggests that people cooperate simply because species that fight amongst themselves eventually all die out, so only species that do cooperate survive. Their genes are then passed down to the next generation. Nowak and Karl Sigmund, another evolutionary biologist, created a virtual tournament where ‘criminals’ were equipped with strategies. If they won, using those strategies, then a replica of the strategy would be introduced in place of a different strategy. Prisoners that always defected prospered at first, but eventually, a strategy called ‘Tit for Tat,’ doing exactly what the other prisoner had previously done, began to win out. Then ‘Generous Tit for Tat’ was introduced, occasionally cooperating despite a previous defection. This strategy, however, was easily taken over by the ‘Always Defectors’ before the pattern repeated. Their simulation represented times of peace and war and proved that people cooperate simply because of their genes — people who fight each other tend to be killed, so more genes leaning towards cooperation appeared. I would rate this article 9.7/10 and recommend it to anyone interested in evolution.
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