Cameron M. Curtin

How do institutions shape cooperation?

Human cooperation is a puzzle. On the one hand, humans achieve incredible levels of cooperation, far outstripping other mammalian species. At the same time, we observe broad cross-cultural variation in human cooperation. While cooperation in some societies is limited to tight, face-to-face social circles, elsewhere people readily cooperate with complete strangers– paying taxes, obeying traffic laws, and anonymously donating blood.  How can we explain these puzzling observations?

To contribute to our understanding of human cooperation, I examine how social norms and institutions shape cooperation within groups. Institutions are packages of social norms that govern different domains of life, such as kinship, religion, and economic exchange.

My recent research has focused on cooperative institutions in indigenous communities of Oaxaca, Mexico, including those related to customary governance, mutual aid, and collective ritual. At my Zapotec village fieldsite, I have examined the various social and psychological mechanisms that institutions harness to stabilize cooperation (Curtin et al., 2024a) and have studied whether patron saint festivals shape cohesion and cooperation within the village (Curtin et al., 2024c). Looking across Oaxacan communities, I have shown that town-level variation in traditional political institutions can explain variation in cooperation (Curtin et al., 2024b).