How Biology Beats Cheaters: A Lesson in Corporate Accountability

The tragedy of the commons is a frequent excuse for the often ill effects of efficient corporate industry. Curbing bad behavior can seem impossible - so we look to see how biology beats cheaters throughout the natural world. In the process, mother nature schools us in corporate accountability. Fortunately, cheaters don't seem to win in the long run!

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Don’t forget to check out the full interview with Joel Corcoran about his experience as a policy advisor and sci/tech attorney in Washington and his trials moving the rusty wheels of government.

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Citations:
Anupama Khare et al. Cheater-resistance is not futile. Nature, Published online 30 September 2009 DOI: 10.1038/nature08472

Andersen, S. B., Marvig, R. L., Molin, S., Johansen, H. K., & Griffin, A. S. (2015). Long-term social dynamics drive loss of function in pathogenic bacteria. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(34), 10756-10761.

Axelrod, R., & Hamilton, W. (1981). The evolution of cooperation. Science, 211(4489), 1390–1396. doi:10.1126/science.7466396

Balasundaram, Nimalathasan, Social Responsibility of Business: A Case Study of Grameen Phone in Bangladesh (July 26, 2009). Analele of University Bucharest, Economic and Administrative Sciences, 227-237 (2009), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2117904

Bastiaans, E., Debets, A. & Aanen, D. Experimental evolution reveals that high relatedness protects multicellular cooperation from cheaters. Nat Commun 7, 11435 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11435

Bshary, R., & Grutter, A. S. (2005). Punishment and partner switching cause cooperative behaviour in a cleaning mutualism. Biology letters, 1(4), 396–399. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0344

Corporate Accountability: https://www.corporateaccountability.org/who-we-are/history/

Hardin G. The tragedy of the commons. The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality. Science. 1968 Dec 13;162(3859):1243-8. PMID: 5699198.

Homo economicus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_economicus

Strassmann, J. E., & Queller, D. C. (2011). Evolution of cooperation and control of cheating in a social microbe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 Suppl 2(Suppl 2), 10855–10862. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102451108

Wenseleers, T., Helanterä, H., Hart, A. and Ratnieks, F.L.W. (2004), Worker reproduction and policing in insect societies: an ESS analysis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 17: 1035-1047. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00751.x

Velicer, G. J., Kroos, L., & Lenski, R. E. (2000). Developmental cheating in the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus . Nature, 404(6778), 598–601. doi:10.1038/35007066

Velicer, G. J., Kroos, L., & Lenski, R. E. (1998). Loss of social behaviors by myxococcus xanthus during evolution in an unstructured habitat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 95(21), 12376–12380. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.95.21.12376

Consumers want more responsible businesses (stats from University of Virginia Darden School of Business faculty members James Rubin and Barie Carmichael): https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10487-corporate-social-accountability.html