Egoistic micro-motivation lacks momentum across cases of cooperation
Evidence
An egoistic micro-motivation, lastly, is fairly self-explanatory: I have such a motivation to cooperate when, in those circumstances, I see it as in my egoistic interest to do so, but this is not because I am generally motivated, as in the Hobbesian system, to cooperate as such. This does not rule out the possibility that I may regularly find myself in such situations, or even that there may be some structure as a result of which I regularly find myself in such situations: to produce such a structure might be a triumph of the Invisible Hand. It will be a mark of this kind of motivation, however, in a pure form, that there will be no motivational momentum from one case of cooperation to the next. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 199
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- XREF: The ‘no motivational momentum’ point parallels Saramago’s serial unravelling: each blind individual re-assesses self-interest de novo, so cooperation has to be re-won each time by observable constraints.
Related
- Egoistic micro-motivation can sustain cooperation via self-interest without any general cooperative disposition. (similarity 0.93)
- Egoistic micro-motivation lacks momentum from one act of cooperation to the next. (similarity 0.90)
- Real cooperation runs on mixed motivations that can undermine one another (similarity 0.83)
- Pure moral commitment to cooperate is unstable without egoistic reinforcement (similarity 0.82)
- Friendly disposition toward individuals is not a general macro-motivation to cooperate (similarity 0.82)
- Hobbesian sanctions produce egoistic macro-motivation to cooperate (similarity 0.82)
- Cooperation has no single solution; motivations combine and overdetermine action (similarity 0.80)
- Cooperation rests on coercion, interests, values, and personal bonds (similarity 0.80)
- Cooperation requires knowing others’ motives and being believed trustworthy (similarity 0.80)
- Cooperative equilibria are no likelier than noncooperative ones without belief restrictions (similarity 0.79)
- Cooperation unravels without iterated mutual knowledge of cooperative intentions. (similarity 0.79)
- Egoistic motivations alone cannot sustain cooperation without plausible self-regulating structures (similarity 0.79)
- Cooperative concert can emerge even amid the maximal distrust of war. (similarity 0.78)
- Coercion and interests alone compel cooperation even without shared values (similarity 0.78)
- Opening with cooperation is rational self-interest, not mere morality (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Egoistic motivations alone cannot sustain cooperation without plausible self-regulating structures
#corroborates(0.92) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 215 - Coercion and interests alone compel cooperation even without shared values
#contradicts(0.85) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2203 - Cooperation can operate independently of trust
#contradicts(0.82) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2830 - Cooperation can occur without trust when incentives align
#qualifies(0.78) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 100 - Pervasive distrust is stable because solo cooperation invites exploitation
#expands(0.75) — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 475