Emotions and human cooperation

PBS Department Seminar Series

This talk explores a central puzzle in the social sciences: why do humans cooperate, even when standard economic models predict self-interested behaviour such as free riding in collective action or public goods settings. A key insight is that cooperation is strongly supported by altruistic punishment: individuals willingly incur personal costs to penalise non-contributors, even when they receive no material benefit in return. This behaviour appears to be emotionally driven, as contributors often experience intense negative emotions when others fail to contribute. The speaker will also discuss the causal impact of emotional wellbeing on social preferences such as negative and positive reciprocity, highlighting how emotional states profoundly shape norm enforcement and cooperative behaviour.

Michalis Drouvelis is Professor of Behavioural Economics at the University of Birmingham. His research combines experimental methods with economic theory to explore human cooperation, social preferences, and the role of emotions in decision-making. He has published widely in leading journals and regularly contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations across economics, psychology, and public policy.

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