Cooperation among strangers has increased since the 1950s

Despite common concerns that the social fabric is fraying, cooperation among strangers has gradually increased in the U.S. since the 1950s, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"We were surprised by our findings that Americans became more cooperative over the last six decades because many people believe U.S. society is becoming less socially connected, less trusting and less committed to the common good," said lead researcher Yu Kou, PhD, a professor of social psychology at Beijing Normal University. "Greater cooperation within and between societies may help us tackle global challenges, such as responses to pandemics, climate change and immigrant crises."

The researchers analyzed 511 studies conducted in the United States between 1956 and 2017 with a total of more than 63,000 participants. Those studies included lab experiments measuring cooperation among strangers. The research was published online in Psychological Bulletin.

The study found a small, gradual increase in cooperation across the 61-year period, which the researchers said may be linked to notable shifts in U.S. society. The increase in cooperation was associated with increases in urbanization, societal wealth, income inequality and the number of people living alone. The study cannot prove those factors caused an increase in cooperation, only that there is a correlation.

Increased cooperation has been linked with market competitiveness and economic growth in prior research. As more people live in cities and on their own, they may be forced to cooperate with strangers, said study co-author Paul Van Lange, PhD, a professor of social psychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

"It's possible that people gradually learn to broaden their cooperation with friends and acquaintances to strangers, which is called for in more urban, anonymous societies," Van Lange said. "U.S. society may have become more individualistic, but people have not."

The studies that were analyzed occurred in lab settings primarily with college students as participants, so the findings may not be representative of real-life situations or of U.S. society as a whole. However, the researchers noted that prior studies have not found that levels of cooperation vary by gender or ethnicity in the U.S.

The study did not measure some other societal factors, such as levels of trust about strangers. Prior research has found a general decline in trust over several decades in the U.S.

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'Life-like' lasers can self-organize, adapt their structure, and cooperate

While many artificial materials have advanced properties, they have a long way to go to combine the versatility and functionality of living materials that can adapt to their situation. For example, in the human body bone and muscle continuously reorganise their structure and composition to better sustain changing weight and level of activity.

Now, researchers from Imperial College London and University College London have demonstrated the first spontaneously self-organising laser device, which can reconfigure when conditions change.

The innovation, reported in Nature Physics, will help enable the development of smart photonic materials capable of better mimicking properties of biological matter, such as responsiveness, adaptation, self-healing, and collective behaviour.

Co-lead author Professor Riccardo Sapienza, from the Department of Physics at Imperial, said: "Lasers, which power most of our technologies, are designed from crystalline materials to have precise and static properties. We asked ourselves if we could create a laser with the ability to blend structure and functionality, to reconfigure itself and cooperate like biological materials do.

"Our laser system can reconfigure and cooperate, thus enabling a first step towards emulating the ever-evolving relationship between structure and functionality typical of living materials."

Lasers are devices that amplify light to produce a special form of light. The self-assembling lasers in the team's experiment consisted of microparticles dispersed in a liquid with high 'gain' -- the ability to amplify light. Once enough of these microparticles collect together, they can harness external energy to 'lase' -- produce laser light.

An external laser was used to heat up a 'Janus' particle (a particle coated on one side with light-absorbing material), around which the microparticles gathered. The lasing created by these microparticle clusters could be turned on and off by changing the intensity of the external laser, which in turn controlled the size and density of the cluster.

The team also showed how the lasing cluster could be transferred in space by heating different Janus particles, demonstrating the adaptability of the system. Janus particles can also collaborate, creating clusters that have properties beyond the simple adding of two clusters, such as changing their shape and boosting their lasing power.

Co-lead author Dr Giorgio Volpe, from the Department of Chemistry at UCL, said: "Nowadays, lasers are used as a matter of course in medicine, telecommunications, and also in industrial production. Embodying lasers with life-like properties will enable the development of robust, autonomous, and durable next-generation materials and devices for sensing applications, non-conventional computing, novel light sources and displays."

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Narcissistic bosses stymie knowledge flow, cooperation inside organizations

Narcissism is a prominent trait among top executives, and most people have seen the evidence in their workplaces.

These individuals believe they have superior confidence, intelligence and judgment, and will pursue any opportunity to reinforce those inflated self-views and gain admiration. According to new research from the University of Washington, narcissism can also cause knowledge barriers within organizations.

When different units in the same company share information, it boosts performance and creates a competitive advantage. Narcissists hinder this knowledge transfer due to a sense of superiority that leads them to overestimate the value of internal knowledge and underestimate the value of external knowledge.

"Many big companies are what one would describe as multi-business firms, an organizational form where you have a corporate parent and subsidiary units," said co-author Abhinav Gupta, associate professor of management in the UW Foster School of Business. "The financial logic for why these firms exist is so that knowledge and skills that reside in one unit can be used in another unit."

But units don't work with each other as much as companies would like, Gupta said. The study, published April 4 in the Strategic Management Journal, revealed that certain personality traits of executives -- specifically narcissism -- impede the flow of information.

"Narcissism affects people's desire to be distinctive," Gupta said. "It's correlated by people wanting glory for themselves. We hypothesized that business-unit heads that have those traits would be the ones to say, 'We don't want to work with you. We have sufficient skills and knowledge and abilities that we will work independently.' That was very strongly borne out based on our research design."

The authors surveyed business units of a headhunting company in China that helps organizations recruit talent and search for technical personnel. These units must share knowledge about building talent pools, identifying skills and persuading prospects to accept offers.

Researchers asked unit heads to rate, among other factors, their own narcissistic traits, the environmental complexity of the local market and perceived competition with other units. They then asked deputies to rate the level of knowledge imported from other units.

Narcissism was measured using the self-report Narcissistic Personality Inventory 16-item scale, which presents pairs of statements and asks individuals to select the one that best describes them. One pair consisted of "I like to be the center of attention" and "I prefer to blend in with the crowd."

The study found that unit-head narcissism can prevent knowledge sharing. That tendency diminished in fast-changing or complex environments because narcissists had an excuse to pursue external ideas. But when businesses have high inter-unit competition, narcissists are more tempted to distinguish themselves from other units.

The research has multiple implications for companies, Gupta said. For example, when filling roles that require knowledge sharing, managers might watch for signs of narcissistic personality traits. Companies could also design an organization and reward structure that encourages cooperation among current personnel.

"There are two views of how multi-business firms create value," Gupta said. "One perspective is you want to run an organization like an internal market. All the units are actively competing for resources from the corporate headquarters, and that competition is what enables superior performance.

"This research kind of goes against the grain of that. If you create the perception of competition inside an organization, then that will have some downstream effects. You will be essentially foregoing some essential knowledge-sharing activities."

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