Emergent Prosocial Behavior During Dynamic Human Group Formation

For scientists, policy makers, and the general population, there is increasing interest in how humans form cooperative groups. However, how group-oriented behavior emerges during the dynamic process of group formation is still unknown. We hypothesize that humans will exhibit emergent prosocial behavior as their immediate group size increases. Using a network-embedded-dyad prisoner dilemma task, with periodic opportunities to retain or remove group members, we find subjects consistently follow a well-performing reciprocal base policy (tit-for-tat-like) across the experimental session. However, subjects’ strategies also became more forgiving and less exploitative as group size increased, with a default preference shift to cooperation. Thus, human cooperation may emerge from a desire to create and maintain larger and more cooperative groups, and multiscale strategy that considers both self-interest and group-interest.

Divided by Identity on the Left? Partisan Spillover and Identity Politics Alignment

It has often been stated that in the United States the left tends to be less united than the right on issues related to identity politics such as race, gender, and religion. This article presents evidence that this asymmetry in partisan alignment over identity politics is changing over time. Looking at various measures of public opinion shows that the left’s agreement on issues related to identity politics has either caught up with the right or that the gap is diminishing. The article considers various possible explanations for unity on these issues – including personality distribution, party homogeneity, and message infrastructure – and shows that partisan spillover in the context of polarization helps explains the closing of the gap in unity between the right and the left. In an era of polarization, Democratic affiliation induces warmer feeling toward stigmatized coalition partners. Groups that may have joined the Democratic party on a single group interest claim (race, gender, religion, class) will gradually move toward greater acceptance of other group interest claims supported by the party. These findings have implications for the oft-stated strategic claim that the left needs to focus on class redistribution over identity politics if the left does not want to be fractured.

The Effect of Incentives: The Problem of Collective Action

Even if cooperating will make everyone better off, cooperation won’t happen if people lack certain kinds of knowledge and motivation. In group settings, individuals will often have incentives to promote their own interest at the expense of the group, either by exploiting others or by failing to contribute to public goods. There are two ways to overcome these “collective action” problems: (1) the incentives that individuals face can be changed so that individual and group interest no longer conflict, and/or (2) group members can embrace norms that enable them to exercise self-restraint and forego opportunities to get ahead at the expense of others. The rule of law, property rights, and proper firm structure can help overcome collective action problems. However, these same structures can also create new opportunities for rent seeking.

Mobilisasi Politik Kelompok Kepentingan Dalam Pilpres 2014 Di Desa Dasan Borok (Studi Nahdlatul Wathan)

Abstraksi Nahdlatul Wathan merupakan suatu kelompok kepentingan yang melakukan mobilisasi politik terhadap masyarakat desa Dasan Borok pada saat Pemilu PILPRES RI 2014. Mobilisasi politik ini dilakukan karena Nahdlatul Wathan adalah salah satu pengusung pasangan kandidat calon Presiden dan Wakil Presiden RI 2014. Terpecahnya Nahdlatul Wathan menjadi dua Pengurusan Besar berdampak pada perbedaan dukungan terhadap pasangan kandidat calon Presiden dan Wakil Presiden RI 2014 seperti Nahdlatul Wathan Pancor mengusung pasangan Prabowo-Hatta dan Nahdlatul Wathan Anjani mengusung Pasangan Jokowi-JK dan masing-masing kubu memiliki massa yang besar di desa Dasan Borok. Adapun tujuan dilakukannya penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui “Peran Kelompok Kepentingan Dalam Memobilisasi Politik Masyarakat Desa Dasan Borok Pada PILPRES 2014”. Dalam memetakan masalah dari penelitian yang bersetting di desa Dasan Borok, Kec. Suralaga ini, maka peneliti menggunakan pendekatan metode penelitian kualitatif dengan jenis penelitian deskriptif dengan tujuan agar data yang disajikan relevan dengan pendekatan yang dipakai. Adapun tekhnik yang dipakai dalam penelitian ini menggunakan tekhnik purposive sampeling. Di samping itu untuk meningkatkan kevalidan data yang diperoleh, maka penelitian ini menggunakan tekhnik pengumpulan data observasi berbentuk participant observation dan wawancara tidak terstruktur serta dokumentasi dengan teknik analisis domain (domain analysis). Dari hasil temuan di lapangan dapat dideskripsikan bahwa PILPRES RI 2014 dipandang sebagai arena pertarungan oleh dua kubu Nahdlatul Wathan selaku kelompok kepentingan karena perbedaan usungan kandidat pasangan calon Presiden dan Wakil Presiden. Sebagai Kelompok Kepentingan, Nahdlatul Wathan berperan sebagai tim sukses dengan menggunakan peran dakwah sebagai media untuk melakukan mobilisasi politiknya terhadap masyarakat desa Dasan Borok pada PILPRES 2014. Hal ini terlihat ketika Nahdlatul Wathan mengadakan pengajian akbar maupun lawatan-lawatan agama dengan menghadirkan pasangan calon presiden yang diusungnya dengan dihadiri oleh ribuan jamaah NW maupun sosialisasi pasangan kandidat ketengah masyarakat yang dilakukan oleh pengurus NW ditingkat cabang dan ranting yang ada di desa Dasan Borok. Kata Kunci: Kelompok Kepentingan, Pilpres, dan Nahdlatul Wathan Abstract Nahdlatul Wathan is a group interest conducting political mobilization on the society in Dasan Borok in president election in 2014. It is done because Nahdlatul Wathan is a group that brings the candidate of president and vice president of RI in 2014. Nahdlatul Wathan becomes two managing committee which affects the support of the president and the vice candidate of RI in 2014. Nahdlatul Wathan Pancor carried Prabowo-Hatta and Nahdlatul Wathan Anjani carried Jokowi-JK, and each group has a great amount of mass in Dasan Borok. This research purposed at knowing “the role of political mobilizationof group interest in the president election in 2014 in Dasan Borok”. This research is a qualitative research approach utilizing descriptive in order the data is relevant. The technique used is purposive sampling. The data collection used is observation in from of participant observation, unstructured interview as well as documentation using domain analysis technique. Based on the found data, it can be described that the president’s election of RI 2014 seemed to be a strange struggling arena done by two sides group of Nahdlatul Wathan as the group interest. As the group interest, Nahdlatul Wathan personated as the success team, it was done through religious endeavor or dakwah in the society in Dasan Borok in president’s election of RI 2014. It can be seen when Nahdlatul Wathan held a great meeting (great religious endeavor) as well as a visit of the candidate of the presidents. It was also done by the chapter and the subsection of NW in Dasan Borok. Keyword: Group Interest, President Election (Pilpres), Nahdlatul Wathan

The Causes of Bureaucratic Petty Corruption in the Province of Aceh in Indonesia

This article tried to explain the causes of petty corruption in the Province of Aceh. It took the kleptocratic approach and Patrimonialism Politics model in explaining the causes of corruption in the region. It had utilized extensively the secondary sources data from books, journal articles and local media report. It found that after the end of the conflict, Aceh was captured by the local kleptocratic elite and they have been effectively used the patrimonialism politics in maintaining their hegemony and protect their group interest. Leaving the region as the state of being one of the poorest region in Indonesia.

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM IN AMERICAN POST-CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN DEAR MARTIN BY NIC STONE (2017)

This thesis is an analysis of a novel written by Nic Stone entitled Dear Martin (2017). It explores the issue of institutional racism in the post-civil rights era. The concept of systemic racism by Joe R.Feagin is employed to analyze this novel. This analysis focuses on four issues of systemic racism as seen through several African-American characters. This analysis also depends on the narrator to determine which parts of the novel are used as the data. The result of the study shows that African-American characters experience four forms of institutional racism which are The White Racial Frame and Its Embedded Racist Ideology, Alienated Social Relations, Racial Hierarchy with Divergent Group Interest, and Related Racial Domination: Discrimination in Many Aspects. In conclusion, in this post-civil rights movement era, African-Americans still face institutional racism.

My Group or Myself? How Black, Latino, and White Americans Choose a Neighborhood, Job, and Candidate when Personal and Group Interest Diverge

Amid growing inequality within racial and ethnic groups, how do Americans decide where to live, where to work, and for whom to vote? While previous research has examined racial patterns in voting decisions, it provides less insight into individual-level decisions about neighborhoods, candidates, and employment—even while these decisions also organize the political world. We theorize about the role of a key variable stratifying these individual-level decisions: education. To test our argument, we analyze nationally representative survey data and a new survey experiment that varies incentives to leave one’s racial group environment. We find that among Blacks and Latinos, but not whites, those with higher levels of formal education are disproportionately likely to respond to incentives to leave their own group. We conclude with reflections on the implications of this educational divide for intra-racial inequality.

Faith in Numbers

Why does religion sometimes promote democracy and sometimes do just the opposite? Theology alone cannot explain the wide variety of influences religion has on democratic attitudes and behaviours. This book presents a theory of religion, group interest, and democracy. Focusing on communal religion, it demonstrates that the effect of communal prayer on support for democracy depends on the interests of the religious group in question. For members of groups who would benefit from democracy, communal prayer increases support for democratic institutions; for citizens whose groups would lose privileges in the event of democratic reforms, the opposite effect is present. Evidence from Lebanon, Iraq, and elsewhere supports these claims. Communal religion increases the salience of sectarian identity, and therefore pushes respondents' regime attitudes into closer alignment with the interests of their sect.