[Social-discuss] Cooperation spreads, scientists say

[Hellekin O. Wolf]

FYI

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/uoc--if030510.php

UC San Diego and Harvard deliver first experimental findings on spread
of cooperation in a social network

In a study published in the March 8 early online edition of the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the
University of California, San Diego and Harvard provide the first
laboratory evidence that cooperative behavior is contagious and that
it spreads from person to person to person. When people benefit from
kindness they "pay it forward" by helping others who were not
originally involved, and this creates a cascade of cooperation that
influences dozens more in a social network.

(see link for complete article)

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