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TMA World Viewpoint 11 Beyond Selfishness

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Beyond Selfishness counters the view that humans are inherently selfish and only motivated by self-interest. It discusses an article by Professor Yochai Benkler arguing that cooperation, not self-interest, adequately explains many human behaviors and systems like Wikipedia, Yelp, and open source software. Empirical evidence also shows that only about 30% of people consistently behave selfishly in experiments, while 50% cooperate conditionally or unconditionally at personal cost. This means incentive systems based solely on rewards and punishments optimize for only a small portion of the population. We need systems that stimulate intrinsic motivations, engagement, and shared sense of purpose to appreciate human nature more fully.

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Beyond SelfishnessTMA World Viewpoint
Beyond SelfishnessBy Terence Brake - Head of Learning & Innovation, TMA WorldOccasionally, I come across a piece of writing that makes me want to punch the air and shout, “Yes!”  That happened just recently when I read Professor Yochai  Benkler’s article – “The Unselfish Gene” in the July-August 2011 edition of the Harvard Business Review.  What Professor Benkler does so well, is to counter the pervasive and pernicious view that we are all born selfish; that we are driven by a narrow rationality focused only on advancing our own material interests.HELLOMy name isTERRY
Beyond SelfishnessI first met this view of humankind – homo economicus – many years ago in undergraduate economics classes.  I remember telling my professor at the time that I thought that this was a highly reductionist and false assumption, and a highly crude platform on which to base economic theory. But what professor listens to undergraduate views?
Beyond SelfishnessOne consequence of the self-interested rationality theory is that when building human systems we assume the worst of everyone.  We develop incentive systems based simply on self-interest, the carrots and sticks approach.Professor Benkler gives a number of examples where self-interest doesn’t adequately explain behavior – Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and open source software like Apache. The Web is full of cooperative activities that offer little in terms of personal gain.
Beyond SelfishnessAs well as common examples of minimally self-interested cooperation, Professor Benkler also points to growing empirical evidence thatcooperation is not an aberration  One interesting study, showed that in experiments about cooperative behavior, about 30% behave selfishly. About 50% “systematically and predictably behave cooperatively. Some of them cooperate conditionally; they treat kindness with kindness and meanness with meanness. Others cooperate unconditionally, even when it comes at a personal cost. (The remaining 20% are unpredictable, sometimes choosing to cooperate and other times refusing to do so.)  In no society examined under controlled conditions have the majority of people consistently behaved selfishly.”
Beyond SelfishnessWhat this means is that most of our incentive systems based on rewards, punishments, and monitoring are optimized for only 30% of the population!  We need systems that stimulate:intrinsic motivations engagementshared sense of purposeThis doesn’t mean looking at the world through rose-colored spectacles; it means having a deeper, more complex, appreciation of human nature.   
To learn more about how TMA World can help your organization, please contact us at enquiries@tmaworld.com or visit www.tmaworld.com/our_solutions.cfm

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TMA World Viewpoint 11 Beyond Selfishness

  • 2. Beyond SelfishnessBy Terence Brake - Head of Learning & Innovation, TMA WorldOccasionally, I come across a piece of writing that makes me want to punch the air and shout, “Yes!”  That happened just recently when I read Professor Yochai  Benkler’s article – “The Unselfish Gene” in the July-August 2011 edition of the Harvard Business Review.  What Professor Benkler does so well, is to counter the pervasive and pernicious view that we are all born selfish; that we are driven by a narrow rationality focused only on advancing our own material interests.HELLOMy name isTERRY
  • 3. Beyond SelfishnessI first met this view of humankind – homo economicus – many years ago in undergraduate economics classes.  I remember telling my professor at the time that I thought that this was a highly reductionist and false assumption, and a highly crude platform on which to base economic theory. But what professor listens to undergraduate views?
  • 4. Beyond SelfishnessOne consequence of the self-interested rationality theory is that when building human systems we assume the worst of everyone.  We develop incentive systems based simply on self-interest, the carrots and sticks approach.Professor Benkler gives a number of examples where self-interest doesn’t adequately explain behavior – Wikipedia, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and open source software like Apache. The Web is full of cooperative activities that offer little in terms of personal gain.
  • 5. Beyond SelfishnessAs well as common examples of minimally self-interested cooperation, Professor Benkler also points to growing empirical evidence thatcooperation is not an aberration  One interesting study, showed that in experiments about cooperative behavior, about 30% behave selfishly. About 50% “systematically and predictably behave cooperatively. Some of them cooperate conditionally; they treat kindness with kindness and meanness with meanness. Others cooperate unconditionally, even when it comes at a personal cost. (The remaining 20% are unpredictable, sometimes choosing to cooperate and other times refusing to do so.)  In no society examined under controlled conditions have the majority of people consistently behaved selfishly.”
  • 6. Beyond SelfishnessWhat this means is that most of our incentive systems based on rewards, punishments, and monitoring are optimized for only 30% of the population!  We need systems that stimulate:intrinsic motivations engagementshared sense of purposeThis doesn’t mean looking at the world through rose-colored spectacles; it means having a deeper, more complex, appreciation of human nature.   
  • 7. To learn more about how TMA World can help your organization, please contact us at enquiries@tmaworld.com or visit www.tmaworld.com/our_solutions.cfm