Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
News and Views
Nature 415, 125-128 (10 January 2002) | doi:10.1038/415125a
Behavioural science: Homo reciprocans
Samuel Bowles1 & Herbert Gintis2
Top of page
Abstract
Humans are often generous, but cooperation unravels when others take advantage of them. Many people punish such 'free riders', even if they do not benefit personally, and this 'altruistic punishment' sustains cooperation.
Garrett Hardin1 famously described a group of herders whose pursuit of self-interest leads to overgrazing of a pasture, driving it to ruin. His term for the process, the 'tragedy of the commons', underlined its inexorable nature.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).