Cooperation in Conflicts: Commonalities Between Humans and Other Animals

Abstract

“The Parties to This Treaty…are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense,” and to a fairly large extent, the nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have done just that for nearly 50 years. “During fights, individuals compare the strength of their own group with that of the opponent. When they perceive that group members locally outnumber opponents, they behave aggressively, recruiting to the battle and cooperating” (Adams, 1990:326). This second quote is not an account of the behavior of NATO soldiers; it is a description of boundary disputes between colonies of a territorial ant, altered only to remove references to ants.