Research reveals why humans like to share

by Guest Sun Sep 13, 2015 9:19 am

Human intelligence and knowledge depends on how we collect and use sharable resources, according to scientists from The University of Manchester.Marco Smolla and Dr Susanne Shultz say in contrast with humans, the impact of competition means it is often costly for animals to learn from, or share information with others. Using a computer simulation to mimic the behaviour of animals, the findings cast important new light on our understanding of human - and animal - behaviour.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B today.
Dr Shultz said: "Unique human traits include generosity, teaching and imitation. Our model suggests the key to both of these behaviours might lie in how we overcame the impact of competition, allowing us to share resources and information between us. "It does not pay to share a blade of grass or a leaf from a tree. So animals that eat such foods do better by making their own decisions about what to eat rather than copying others. "However, it does make sense to copy individuals using highly valuable foods even if the proceeds need to be shared. "So, it is possible a key part of human evolution was learning to use sharable resource, for example by hunting large game."

Until now, scientists have struggled to explain why animals chose not to learn from those around them when it seems a much easier and less risky way to get information than learning by yourself. And the team realised that up to now, researchers had excluded competition from their models. However, competition is one of the major mechanisms that shape interactions between individuals and groups. Their computer program simulated individual animals that search, collect, and compete for food. The food was spread over patches that could change over time.

But the crucial difference to earlier models was that individuals had to share food items if they foraged in the same place. The simple addition resulted in animals ignoring others when using evenly spread out resources, but learning from others when using rare, highly profitable ones. Marco Smolla said: "What is surprising and previously unexplained is that non-human animals do not share or copy as much information as they might: this is almost as true for honey bees as it is for apes. "But our study shows that competition for limited resources provides a compelling explanation.

"We found that when rewards are more evenly distributed in the environment or when our simulated patches quickly change the amount of food items, individuals are less likely to share or copy information. "There is simply not much use in following others when an individual could also just find food on its own and then doesn't have to compete with others."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-09-reveals-humans.html#jCp

by eddie Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:15 am

I don't need a scientist to tell me why humans share?

They do it instinctively with food so that others will survive alongside them - strength in numbers etc
And they do it out of love.

Not rocket science is it? People can work this shit out why pay a scientist to tell us this shit?

by Guest Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:21 am

Good Morning Eddie.

Are you the only person on this forum or in the world that shares your view/understanding on human sharing? Are you claiming we do not need to further understand why some humans share and others do not?

So if its not rocket science then why do we have people moaning sharing a land which has only had less than 10 percent urbanized?

Why is it people walk past homeless people when they have money in their pocket?

This may start to give you a clue as to why scientists do such research Eddie, as it is not clear cut as you seem to think

by eddie Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:29 am

Some people are more greedy or less greedy - blah blah - why do we need to pay a bunch of scientists to tell us this?
And what will it do if we find out why some people are "less sharey"??

Sometimes didge, "science" is all about stating the bloody obvious and a total waste of money.

by Guest Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:37 am

eddie wrote:Some people are more greedy or less greedy - blah blah - why do we need to pay a bunch of scientists to tell us this?
And what will it do if we find out why some people are "less sharey"??

Sometimes didge, "science" is all about stating the bloody obvious and a total waste of money.

Wow how scientific of Eddie
Some people are greedy and some are not greedy.

That was brilliant Eddie, but it utterly failed to factor in countless reasons

What happens when we find issues Eddie, will look for a better way forward, normally through teaching methods. Finding root causes to problems helps us better understand an issue.

Sometimes Eddie when it comes to Science you have not got a scooby doo, where science is an ever ongoing learning process.

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