While it can sometimes feel as though the world is cut-throat and dog-eat-dog, research from the University of Sydney suggests that cooperation is something inbuilt within us all.

The study sheds light on the human propensity to help others, revealing that requests for assistance are made approximately every 2 minutes and 17 seconds in daily life. Across cultures, these appeals for aid are complied with seven times more often than they are denied, and in cases where assistance is refused, an explanation is usually offered.

Lending a hand

The universality of this instinct to lend a hand transcends cultural variances, thereby reconciling discrepancies in past economic and anthropological research on resource sharing among diverse populations.

While prior studies have highlighted differences in distributional norms among groups such as the whale hunters of Lamalera in Indonesia, the Hadza foragers of Tanzania, and the Orma villagers of Kenya, this new global analysis suggests that cultural variation plays a more prominent role in high-cost exchanges and special occasions than in day-to-day social interactions, where the impulse to offer help is widespread.

The findings provide insight into the fundamental nature of human cooperation and generosity, illuminating the innate tendencies that underlie our inclination to assist others.

Key findings

• Small requests for assistance occur frequently, happening once every 2 minutes and 17 seconds on average. These requests are low-cost and are often about sharing items or helping others with tasks.
• Compliance with small requests is cross-culturally shared, with requests being complied with seven times more often than they are declined, ignored, or both.
• Compliance rates do not vary significantly based on the type of relationship between individuals, whether they are family or non-family.
• People rarely give an explicit “No” when declining assistance, instead providing a reason for non-compliance in 74% of cases.
• There is no significant cultural difference in compliance rates, although members of some cultures may have a higher tolerance for ignoring small requests.

These findings challenge previous research that suggested cultural differences significantly influenced prosocial behavior. Instead, the study suggests that the tendency to give help when needed is universally visible in our species.