Affordances for Cooperation as a Dynamical System

University Of Connecticut, Storrs CT

Investigators

Abstract

People are social animals, in part, because they can accomplish things together that they cannot do alone. The possibilities for acting in the environment are very different when others are present. These possibilities for action, the so-called affordances of a situation, are quantitatively and qualitatively changed when we are with another person. Not only can we perform tasks that are more demanding but, as a cooperative social unit, we may see new ways that such tasks can be completed. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Kerry Marsh and her colleagues will advance our understanding of how pairs of individuals shift from solo to shared action in physical tasks. Past research suggests that fundamental mathematical principles determine the actions of a solo actor in reaching or lifting for example. Dr. Marsh and colleagues extend those principles to understand interpersonal action. The funded research will investigate how physical limitations and environmental constraints on individuals combine with interpersonal constraints such as past relationship and shared goals to affect cooperative actions among individuals. The current approach makes specific predictions regarding how and when cooperation will emerge. Broader impacts of interpersonal cooperation are of fundamental societal import, and the rigorous method of the funded study is unique and original.