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Brothers in Arms: Cooperation in Defence

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  • David Hugh-Jones
  • Ro'i Zultan

Abstract

In experiments, people behave more cooperatively when they are aware of an external threat, while in the field, we observe surprisingly high levels of cooperation and altruism within groups in conflict situations such as civil wars. We provide an explanation for these phenomena. We introduce a model in which different groups vary in their willingness to help each other against external attackers. Attackers infer the cooperativeness of a group from its members' behaviour under attack, and may be deterred by a group which bands together against an initial attack. Then, even self-interested individuals may behave cooperatively when threatened, so as to mimic more cooperative groups. By doing so, they drive away attackers and increase their own future security. We argue that a group's reputation is a public good with a natural weakest-link structure. We test the implications of our model in a laboratory experiment.

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File URL: http://pubdb.wiwi.uni-jena.de/pdf/wp_2010_064.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Planck-Institute of Economics in its series Jena Economic Research Papers with number 2010-064.

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Date of creation: 27 Sep 2010
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Handle: RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-064

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Related research

Keywords: cooperation; conflict; defence; signaling;

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  1. Hendon, Ebbe & Jacobsen, Hans Jorgen & Sloth, Birgitte, 1996. "The One-Shot-Deviation Principle for Sequential Rationality," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 274-282, February.
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Cited by:
  1. Frans van Winden, 2012. "Affective Social Ties - Missink Link in Governance Theory," Rationality, Markets and Morals, Frankfurt School Verlag, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, vol. 3(57), October.

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