The Developmental Origins of Cooperation

Catalog description

Cooperation is essential to a thriving and functioning society. Our everyday lives contain examples of strangers making sacrifices forthe benefits of others. For instance, humans donate money, blood, or even a kidney to complete strangers in times of need. That beingsaid, it is hard to ignore that many of the problems we face as a society, such as climate change, remain intractable in part because ofindividuals' lack of willingness to incur monetary costs to benefit others. This class will explore the ways in which humans are and arenot cooperative beings. We will do this through a developmental lens with an emphasis on understanding how cooperative impulsescan be traced to behaviors in childhood.