While humans all over the globe play games, not all cultures are equally able to enjoy them. Games might be used by humans to teach and store cultural-specific information. If you think back to the last time you played, would you say it was cooperative, competitive, or solo? Sarah Leisterer–Peoples, a Leipzig researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, says that if you are from Germany, there is a good chance you have played a competitive sport. “We think that games might reflect aspects of human cultures, such as how competitive and cooperative the cultures are.”
Research has shown that competitive games are common in socially hierarchical societies, which include those with different wealth and status. It has been shown that games are more cooperative in egalitarian cultures. This relationship has been explored in a limited number of cultures before, which limits its breadth. Researchers from Australia, Germany, Jena, Gera and Germany conducted a new study using historical data to determine if the games played by cultures correspond to their cooperativeness.
Historical perspective on Pacific culture and the games they played
The research team began by going through a database of historical games played in the Pacific. The cultures we studied lived across a wide geographic area, including the Pacific Ocean. Leisterer-Peoples says that although the cultures were diverse, they also had many similarities which allowed for comparisons on many aspects. It is possible that two groups might share certain characteristics, like how they get their food. However, they may differ in other aspects such as competition norms. Leisterer-Peoples says, “We tried to hone in on these differences, while accounting for their similarities.”
The scientists then identified characteristics that could indicate their cooperation. Leisterer-Peoples says that historical data has limitations. You can’t go back in history to interview people from other cultures. Instead, you have to rely upon the historical documentation of those cultures. They looked at the structure of socially hierarchical cultures, how frequently members of one culture clash with another, how many cultures conflict with each other, and how common it was for members to hunt and fish together in groups. Leisterer-Peoples says that these are “These are real-world proxies for cooperative behavior” They were able eventually to identify 25 cultures with historical information on the cultural characteristics and the games they played.
Simulations mimic real-world behavior
Researchers found that cultures who engage in frequent conflicts with other cultures are more likely to play cooperatively than those that engage in competitive games. However, those cultures that are involved in frequent conflicts with their community members tend to have more cooperative games than competitive ones. It was not clear if the social hierarchy of cultures and whether they hunted and fished in groups correlated with the types played.
These findings may not be intuitive at first, but they make sense when viewed in the context of theories about the evolution of cooperation within cultural groups. Group members must cooperate with each other and compete with their counterparts when there is conflict with another culture. This can be seen in the games played, which include those with opposing groups. When there is a lot of conflict between members of a group they will play more competitive games. These results suggest that we play reflect our socio-ecological culture,” Leisterer-Peoples says. This may mimic real-world behavior, and could be one way in which norms of group are learned and applied during childhood.
“Science lives through replication of previous findings. It’s important that future studies investigate this finding further, especially in other parts of the world and in modern-day cultures. We don’t know whether this effect is still relevant in today’s gaming culture. Nowadays, store-bought games and video games have overtaken the traditional games that were played in children’s free time. Future studies also need to investigate the specific skills that are learned through games, not just the degree of cooperation in the games,” says Leisterer-Peoples. “This is just the beginning of studies on games across cultures. There’s much more to uncover!”
Source: https://www.eva.mpg.de/index/