Social and Behavioral Science: How inequality and segregation shape (and are shaped by) cooperation and collective action
Abstract
How do inequalities within communities alter patterns of cooperation and collective action among community members? And how does this depend on whether the community is segregated by wealth? Similarly, how does cooperation/collective action alter societal-level inequalities and wealth-based segregation? These questions exist at the intersection of two of social sciences most fundamental problems: i) the emergence and persistence of inequalities and ii) the conditions that give rise to human cooperation and social order. Because social science has addressed these problems in isolation from one another, existing research cannot answer these core questions. We bridge fundamental insights into inequality and segregation with models of cooperation and collective action to explain how inequalities alter patterns of cooperation/collective action, and how cooperation/collective action, in turn, contribute to sustained societal-level inequalities. We propose two large studies. Both account for the fact that societies are generally characterized by wealth inequalities and wealth-based segregation. And both highlight unrecognized interdependencies between inequality and segregation in both collective action (Study 1) and cooperation (Study 2). Phase 1 of the proposed research uses multi-level public goods models to test our argument that, in segregated groups, the focus of collective actions endogenously shifts from global levels (e.g., cities) to local levels (e.g., neighborhoods). Thus, rather than contributing to collective actions that are more globally beneficial, those in wealthier communities contribute to local-level collective actions. This, in turn, leaves those in resource poor neighborhoods to turn inward as well, shifting their focus from global- to local public goods. Because poorer communities produce less valuable collective actions than richer ones, this leads to growing inequalities between communities and the failure of large-scale collective action. We argue and empirically test our prediction that a very different dynamic plays out in integrated societies. We show that by modeling these dynamics with multi-level public goods we can capture fundamental, but heretofore unrecognized connections between inequality, segregation and (the success or failure of) collective actions. Phase 2 focuses on networked groups. Prior work shows that dynamic networks promote cooperation, but this literature has not addressed resource inequality, or how agents leverage the social capital of their network ties. We argue that wealth inequality dramatically alters both the evolution of social structure and cooperation. Specifically, we expect homophily to drive wealth-based sorting, giving rise to wealth-based segregation, altered patterns of cooperation, and growing inequalities. In addition to wealth-based segregation, we also address a different form of inequality, namely a novel operationalization of social capital Ð one based on the benefits derived from interacting with more or less wealthy alters. This captures the (dis)advantages that accrue from interacting with those who possess (less) more social capital. Coupled with wealth-based sorting, we argue that social capital sorting leads to increased inequality over time, something that has been documented in many societies. Our argument suggests that these increases in inequality are partly due to the dynamics of networks and cooperation, a heretofore unrecognized mechanism in the emergence and persistence of segregation and inequality. Both proposed experiments also allow us to test arguments linking inequality and segregation to reduced trust and trustworthiness, key dimensions of social order. As detailed in the project description, besides the theoretical significance, we expect that insights from the proposed work will yield a variety of practical insights for the Army.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 22, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910281
Entities
People
- Brent Simpson
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of South Carolina