Toward an Evolutionary Perspective on Social Media Use for Cooperation

Yu Leung Ng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It has been argued that human beings are ecologically successful because of their large-group cooperation. In this article, I provide an overview of some recent research to propose that humans are evolved to cooperate with others, and they now use social media to perform large-group cooperation. People use social media to satisfy various needs. One possible gratification is that social media is a technological advance that facilitates resources and information sharing, connection, and interaction among people all over the world to perform successful cooperation. The aim of the present study is to propose an integrated evolutionary explanation of social media use for cooperation. Social media help individuals to gain monetary and emotional resources via online social capital construction and consolidation, enhance reputation via sharing knowledge and information on social media, and maintain in-group interests via collective decision-making. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)132-146
Number of pages14
JournalEvolutionary Behavioral Sciences
Volume14
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2020

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

User-Defined Keywords

  • Collective action
  • Cooperation
  • Information sharing
  • Social capital
  • Social media

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