Group Cooperation Diverges onto Durable Low versus High Paths: Public Goods Experiments in 134 Honduran Villages

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Papamichalis, Marios, Christakis, Nicholas, Fu, Feng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Papamichalis, Marios
Christakis, Nicholas
Fu, Feng
author_facet Papamichalis, Marios
Christakis, Nicholas
Fu, Feng
contents We performed large, lab-in-the-field experiment (2,591 participants across 134 Honduran villages; ten rounds) and tracked how contribution behavior unfolds in fixed, anonymous groups of size five. Contribution separates early into two durable paths, one low and one high, with rare convergence thereafter. High-path players can be identified with strong accuracy early on. Groups that begin with an early majority of above-norm contributors (about 60%) are very likely finish high. The empirical finding of a bifurcation, consistent with the theory, shows that early, high contributions by socially central people steer groups onto, and help keep them on, a high-cooperation path.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_09316
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Group Cooperation Diverges onto Durable Low versus High Paths: Public Goods Experiments in 134 Honduran Villages
Papamichalis, Marios
Christakis, Nicholas
Fu, Feng
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We performed large, lab-in-the-field experiment (2,591 participants across 134 Honduran villages; ten rounds) and tracked how contribution behavior unfolds in fixed, anonymous groups of size five. Contribution separates early into two durable paths, one low and one high, with rare convergence thereafter. High-path players can be identified with strong accuracy early on. Groups that begin with an early majority of above-norm contributors (about 60%) are very likely finish high. The empirical finding of a bifurcation, consistent with the theory, shows that early, high contributions by socially central people steer groups onto, and help keep them on, a high-cooperation path.
title Group Cooperation Diverges onto Durable Low versus High Paths: Public Goods Experiments in 134 Honduran Villages
topic Applications
Other Statistics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09316