1:00-2:15P   TR   SY 037
This section fulfills COAS topics requirement.
This section meets with HON H228

In families, work organizations, churches and communities, people can
achieve great gains by pooling resources and working together. Yet people
often fail to sustain cooperative ventures, thereby forfeiting the
benefits they could have attained by trusting each other. This course will
seek answers to two questions: WHY do people fail to cooperate? HOW can
people build ties of trust and cooperation?

We will begin by reviewing social situations in which "perverse"
incentives drive people to withhold cooperation, especially "prisoners'
dilemmas" and social dilemmas, including "free-rider" situations. Then we
will analyze conditions under which people can find ways to escape from
these "social traps," trust each other, and work for their common welfare.
This part of the course will include an examination of "social capital"
and how it supports democratic governance and economic prosperity.

The course will emphasize empirical research (especially sample surveys,
social-psychological experiments, and field studies.) Classes will involve
lecture, discussion, small-group work, and in-class writing assignments.
Students will be asked to reflect on the reading in (very short) weekly
papers. Two midterm exams will include short-answer and essay questions.
The final exam will be comprehensive, asking students to link up ideas
from all parts of the course.