Mothers, Fathers, and Others: Competition and Cooperation in the Aftermath of Conflict

Authors: Alessandra Cassar, Pauline A. Grosjean, Fatima Jamal Khan y Miranda Lambert

Moderators: Jorge Iván Bula Escobar, Director del Centro de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo (CID) de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), Francesco Bogliacino profesor de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (FCE) de la UNAL y Leonardo Urrea profesor de la FCE UNAL

Date: October 6 2021

We investigate the possibility that females and males had a distinct path in the evolution of competitiveness and cooperation. We conducted an experiment to elicit preferences for in-group egalitarianism and individual competitiveness for a random sample of 751 individuals in Sierra Leone (aged 18-85) to contrast the behavioural consequences of victimisation during the 1991-2003 civil war across sex and parental roles. Our data show that mothers and fathers display the highest level of cooperation, yet conflict exposure does not affect them. Egalitarianism increases after victimisation only among non-parents, with an effect stronger for males who are the least egalitarian to start with. Conflict exposure tames everyone’s competitive tendencies, but has the opposite effect for mothers, the least competitive in the absence of conflict. A sample of competitiveness among 191 parents from Colombia shows a similar effect. Our results imply that conflict, by closing sex and parental gaps in behavior, select for pressures to reduce within-group differences possibly to enhance internal cooperation. It primes individuals towards group and individual survival depending on both sex and parental role.