Dataset Information

Prenatal Temperature Shocks Reduce Cooperation: Evidence from Public Goods Games in Uganda.

ABSTRACT: Climate change has not only led to a sustained rise in mean global temperature over the past decades, but also increased the frequency of extreme weather events. This paper explores the effect of temperature shocks in utero on later-life taste for cooperation. Using historical climate data combined with data on child and adult behavior in public goods games, I show that abnormally high ambient temperatures during gestation are associated with decreased individual contributions to the public good in a statistically and economically significant way. A 1 standard deviation rise in mean ambient temperature during gestation is associated with a 10% point decrease in children's cooperation rate in a dichotomous public goods game, and the reduced taste for cooperation lasts into adulthood.

SUBMITTER: Duchoslav J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5742612 | biostudies-other | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Prenatal Temperature Shocks Reduce Cooperation: Evidence from Public Goods Games in Uganda.

Duchoslav Jan J

Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience 20171221

Climate change has not only led to a sustained rise in mean global temperature over the past decades, but also increased the frequency of extreme weather events. This paper explores the effect of temperature shocks <i>in utero</i> on later-life taste for cooperation. Using historical climate data combined with data on child and adult behavior in public goods games, I show that abnormally high ambient temperatures during gestation are associated with decreased individual contributions to the publ ...[more]

PMID: 29311866

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Project description:From the microscopic to the macroscopic level, biological life exhibits directed migration in response to environmental conditions. Chemotaxis enables microbes to sense and move towards nutrient-rich regions or to avoid toxic ones. Socio-economic factors drive human populations from rural to urban areas. The effect of collective movement is especially significant when triggered in response to the generation of public goods. Microbial communities can, for instance, alter their environment through the secretion of extracellular substances. Some substances provide antibiotic-resistance, others provide access to nutrients or promote motility. However, in all cases the maintenance of public goods requires costly cooperation and is consequently susceptible to exploitation. The threat of exploitation becomes even more acute with motile individuals because defectors can avoid the consequences of their cheating. Here, we propose a model to investigate the effects of targeted migration and analyze the interplay between social conflicts and migration in ecological public goods. In particular, individuals can locate attractive regions by moving towards higher cooperator densities or avoid unattractive regions by moving away from defectors. Both migration patterns not only shape an individual's immediate environment but also affects the entire population. For example, defectors hunting cooperators have a homogenizing effect on population densities. This limits the production of the public good and hence inhibits the growth of the population. In contrast, aggregating cooperators promote the spontaneous formation of patterns through heterogeneous density distributions. The positive feedback between cooperator aggregation and public goods production, however, poses analytical and numerical challenges due to its tendency to develop discontinuous distributions. Thus, different modes of directed migration bear the potential to enhance or inhibit the emergence of complex and sometimes dynamic spatial arrangements. Interestingly, whenever patterns emerge, cooperation is promoted, on average, population densities rise, and the risk of extinction is reduced.

Dataset Information

Prenatal Temperature Shocks Reduce Cooperation: Evidence from Public Goods Games in Uganda.

Publications

Prenatal Temperature Shocks Reduce Cooperation: Evidence from Public Goods Games in Uganda.

Similar Datasets

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