Andy’s Quick Hits (259): Cooperation Amongst Strangers Is On The Rise

Despite a belief in many that society is falling apart and becoming less caring and social this study proves the opposite.

A study published by Yuan et al. with the American Psychological Association analysed 511 studies conducted between 1956 and 2017 and including over 63’000 participants. This takes us from what many consider the Golden Age of the USA in the 1950s to the modern era. And what did they find?

They found that there was a slow but consistent increase in helping stranger and general cooperativeness over the period. This shows that in the USA a tendency to be cooperative and help strangers has increased over time. This may counteract some people’s beliefs and portrayals of polarised societies.

The authors note this correlates with certain factors such as increased urbanization, societal wealth, income inequality, and also people living alone. Each of these could contribute to increased willingness to help strangers.

However, this is only a correlation and they can’t show causation — it is likely multiple reasons including the above. As people move into cities, live closer to each other, but also live alone, we may be more open to and willing to help others. The same applies to increased wealth giving some people the financial ability to…