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Cooperation Works if Majority Can Punish Freeloaders

Posted by michael on from the cooperate-or-die dept.

plasmid writes: "Some Swiss economists ran an investment game... they found that if the majority could punish freeloaders, cooperation flourished. I think this has implications for cooperative peer-to-peer systems and, to a lesser extent, for open source development. I'm so inspired I plan to go out an punish someone right now, as a matter of fact." I had just read this article the other day (go memepool), so this Nature piece seems oddly apropos.

4 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. Damn by Jailbrekr · · Score: 2, Funny

    I guess we'll start seeing bigger upload/download ratios on Warez servers now... :(

    --
    Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
  2. Funny they should say that by gnalre · · Score: 5, Funny

    Funny that Swiss Economists should come up with this conclusion.

    Swiss - Sit back and watch the rest of the world fight tyranny and just rake the money in wherever and however it was attained

    Economists - Earn money based on pseudo-science and predictions which are as reliable as those gained by examining chicken entrails.

    Therefore should'nt we just punish Swiss Economists

    --
    Choose your allies carefully, it is highly unlikely you will be held accountable for the actions of your enemies
  3. Punishing all you slashdot lurkers by ukryule · · Score: 5, Funny

    So next time I get moderation priveledges, I'm going to mod down people who haven't posted anything :)

  4. Re:Reminds me of an experiment by jeti · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is a real experiment that has been done
    several times. I think groups were typically
    2*10 people.