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Moral externalization is an implausible mechanism for cooperation, let alone “hypercooperation”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2018

Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson*
Affiliation:
Center for Governance and Public Policy Research & Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University, Salem, OR 97301. tjohnson@willamette.edu www.tim-j.com
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Abstract

To facilitate cooperation, moral externalization requires truthful and meticulous information about others’ moral commitments (Stanford target article, sect. 6). By definition, this information does not exist in the low-information environments where humans display their “hypercooperativeness.” Furthermore, collecting that information – if possible – entails costs that other mechanisms for correlated interaction avoid. Hence, moral externalization is an unlikely mechanism for cooperation, let alone “hypercooperation.”

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e106
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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