The very notion of natural selection casts doubt on the ability of mankind to cooperate versus compete.  After all, only the strongest survive to pass their genes on, so how important has cooperation and collaboration been to the survival of mankind?

From The Origin of Species to The Selfish Gene there have been no shortage of explanations about the ruthless nature of evolution and the pressure it places on our behavior.

Yet the world is awash with clear examples of altruism and cooperation.  The examples suggest that not only is collaboration common, but indeed it is the oil that keeps society functioning.

The origins of collaboration

A recent study, led by Monash Business School, set out to discover when man first developed an ability to collaborate.

The researchers used game theoretic modelling to try and determine when humans first developed the ability to collaborate around shared intentions.

It is likely that collaboration first emerged at a time when technological and cultural progress (or innovation if you will) offered a big boost to our chances of survival.  This could be a time of major change, such as a significant global warming or cooling event.

“There is a strong hypothesis suggesting that this ability to collaborate was a key part of developing humanity’s advanced mental abilities. In other words, rather than ‘we are smart and so we collaborate’, it may be ‘we collaborate and so we are smart’,” the authors say.

“To date, there has been no mechanism proposed of how our ability to collaborate became wide-spread in the human population. Our model provides just such a mechanism.”

The authors hope that their work gives us fresh insight into our humanity has evolved, and in particular how humanity fits into the wider natural environment.

It also reminds us that things such as team work are very far from alien concepts, and are actually key parts of what it is to be human, which given our increasingly collaborative workspaces is a very positive thing indeed.