How Biology Beats Cheaters: A Lesson in Corporate Accountability - DC Attorney, Joel Corcoran

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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We wrote and performed the music in this episode! 


Shilo Delay:  https://soundcloud.com/laterisgone​  


And everywhere else (Spotify, etc..)
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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