Cooperation, Punishment And Revenge In Economics And Society

Researchers have shed new light on the way in which people co-operate for the common good -- and what happens when they don't.

In a new study of 16 countries, published in Science, economists studied the extent to which some people will sacrifice personal gain to benefit the wider public, while 'freeloaders' try to take advantage of their generosity.

Marked national differences arose when freeloaders were punished for putting their own interests ahead of the common good.

And whether they...