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Exploring the human propensity to cooperate

Working with a nomadic group in Tanzania, one of the last remaining nomadic hunter-gatherer populations, Penn psychologists show that cooperation is flexible, not fixed.
Hunter gatherer in Tanzania
The Hadza way of life offers the chance to study how certain human traits have evolved. Between 2010 and 2016, psychologist Coren Apicella visited more than 50 camps in Hadzaland to study cooperation. Her new paper, co-authored by Penn doctoral candidates Kristopher Smith and Tomás Larroucau, finds that this trait is flexible, highlighting humans’ capacity to adapt to different social environments. Photo by Eduardo Azevedo

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