I. The Problem of Cooperation A. Three Unusual Features of Human Societies Human societies exhibit cooperation, coordination, and division of labor, three features that place them at striking variance with most animals. Cooperation involves individuals doing something for the common benefit of everyone in a social group, as when soldiers defend a whole nation against its enemies. Coordination i...

The genetic basis of division of labor in social insects is a central question in evolutionary and behavioral biology. The honey bee is a model for studying evolutionary behavioral genetics because of its well characterized age-correlated division of labor. After an initial period of within-nest tasks, 2-3 week-old worker bees begin foraging outside the nest. Individuals often specialize by bia...

Humans are much more cooperative than other vertebrates. In other species, cooperation is mainly limited to close relatives, there is little division of labor, no trade, and no large scale conflict, the sick and disabled must fend for themselves, and the strong take from the weak without fear of sanctions by third parties. In contrast, division of labor, trade, and large scale conflict are prom...

This paper addresses the problem of multiagent task allocation in extreme teams. An extreme team is composed by a large number of agents with overlapping functionality operating in dynamic environments with possible inter-task constraints. We present an approximate algorithm for task allocation in extreme teams, called eXtreme-Ants. The algorithm is inspired in the division of labor in social i...

The division of labor between castes and the division of labor in workers according to age (temporal polyethism) in social wasps are crucial for maintaining social organization. This study evaluated the division of labor between castes, and the temporal polyethism in workers of Mischocyttarus consimilis Zikán (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). To describe the behavioral repertory of this species, observa...

A new tracking setup allows researchers to monitor the behavior of individual ants inside a colony. The first results demonstrate a link between age, spatial organization and division of labor, and quantify the dynamics of the colony's social network.

Firms exhibit heterogeneity in size, productivity, and internal structure, and this is true even within the same industry. Our paper provides evidence of a link between an organization’s culture—specifically the trust environment—and its level of specialization. We show experimentally that exogenously imposed culture endogenously leads to variation in organizational form. We prime trust and dem...

Abstract In recent decades, because of the vast socio-cultural changes which occurred in Iran, Iranian women have experienced new values and identities and they have achieved more advanced education and consciousness, so that they oppose the gender stereotypes which attribute inferior characteristics to women and cause inequalities and limitations in their everyday life. Although gender stereo...