Freeloaders can live on the fruits of the cooperation of others, but their selfishness can have long-term consequences, reports an evolutionary biologist from The University of Texas at Austin in a new study.
"There is a historical dimension to cooperation," says Dr. Sam Brown, the Human Frontier Science Foundation Fellow in the Section of Integrative Biology. "The act of a cooperator can continue to give benefits even after the cooperator is dead. Conversely, cheating will have consequences in the future."
Brown has developed a new model showing that cooperators and cheaters can co-exist in a dynamic boom and bust state in the presence of long-lasting resources, known as "durable goods."
Durable goods can outlast their producers, and then be passed on to future generations. They include things like antibiotics produced by populations of bacteria to kill off neighboring bacteria and public parks or buildings built by humans.
In the presence of a durable good, cheaters can increase in numbers with no immediate consequences. For example, cheaters could still enjoy the shelter of an ant nest or a building for some time even if it is not being maintained.
"But freeloaders can also increase so rapidly that in a generation's time the whole building collapses," says Brown.
"If you have social dilemmas [where there are cooperators and cheaters] mediated by these longstanding, durable entities like buildings, ant's nests, or biofilms in bacteria, then you introduce an instability," he says. "It's almost as if there is a pact with the devil, because you pay nothing now for your cheating, but you pay double tomorrow, because everyone's cheating and the costs come home to roost."
If you've been reading my blog, you know this is a factor that has been of concern to me. Maybe I have had an impact by putting forth ideas; that would be gratifying. But, to me, this is such an obvious idea, that I would expect more than one person to think of it on their own.
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