From running a business to society in general, motivating others to do something can be done in two ways, through incentives or through punishment. Which is better?
At the moment, the discussion about the evolution of (human) cooperation is on a rather theoretical level. The main aim is to understand under which circumstances individuals tend to cooperate with each other and to which extent they behave selfishly.
Using a game theoretic model, a new study showed that rewards are very effective in increasing cooperation but, ironically, increased cooperation makes rewards expensive. At some point punishment becomes more efficient.
I loved reading this article as it reminded me of the conclusions I drew in investigating the role of trust in strategic alliances through game theory. What role can incentives and punishement play in trust and reciprocity. The dynamics are quite interesting. You can check out my thesis here…