Cooperation, risk and the evolution of teamwork

Andras, Peter; Lazarus, John

Abstract

Our aims in this chapter are twofold. First, we place teamwork in the context of the evolutionary analysis of cooperation and altruism. This allows us to predict the evolutionary scenarios likely to have favoured the evolution of team work, the probable origins of human teamwork and the biases to be predicted in team thinking. Second, we examine the influences of environmental adversity and uncertainty (both conceptualized as ‘risk’) on cooperation in the organic world and describe a new model to explain these influences. We conclude by drawing conclusions about the role of environmental risk in the emergence of human cooperation and teamwork.

• Publication Date: 2005
• Deposit Date: Nov 2, 2021
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 56-77
• Book Title: Teamwork: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives
• ISBN: 978-1-349-51693-3
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523203_4
• Keywords: Group Selection, Cooperative Behaviour, Mushroom Body, Reciprocal Altruism, Indirect Reciprocity
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2809332