Michael Schultz

Who they are

The work of Michael Schultz reaches this site through the paper listed below. On this site the name is tied to Gossip, Reputation.

Key papers

Feinberg, M., Willer, R., & Schultz, M. (2014). Gossip and ostracism promote cooperation in groups. Psychological Science, 25(3), 656-664. What it reports: In group games, people readily passed on information about members who acted selfishly, and others used it to leave those members out. The possibility of gossip and exclusion raised contributions to the shared pot, and people who had been left out went on to cooperate at similar levels to the rest.

Key ideas

Gossip: Everyday talk about who did what, the low-cost end of norm enforcement.

Reputation: What a group collectively believes about a person's conduct, updated as people share what they have seen.

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