Mutual visibility and hearing increase cooperative outcomes

Evidence

For example, Wichman (1970) reported least cooperation between female subjects when they were in a position where they could neither hear nor see one another, and most when they were in close proximity and could both see The notion ‘amount of communication’ is by no means a simple one, and an important qualification concerning its benefit in bargaining or contractual situations concerns the degree of ambiguity potentially present in any communication. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 578

Categorization

• XREF: Central to the reader’s Saramago/Luhmann framing: cooperation tracks degree of mutual observability; total blindness in Saramago’s epidemic is the extreme end where neither can see nor hear the other, collapsing cooperation. — connects to: Synchronous singing and movement measurably increase cooperative contributions, even in four-year-olds. — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success: How Culture…, 526