Pulling Together

The three conditions that get people to do their part, and how to create them.

Conserving energy, saving water, taking public transit, even washing dishes at the office so the kitchenette sink isn’t swarming with fruit flies: we do these small acts of cooperation all the time, but it’s still not nearly enough. If we’re so good at cooperation, why are we so bad at getting more of it when we need it most? As Erez Yoeli reveals in Pulling Together, the explanation, and the solution, are closer at hand than we think.

Yoeli shows that cooperation depends less on character than on conditions. People do their part when three things are true: their good deeds can be seen, they have no plausible way to claim they didn’t know or couldn’t help, and everyone is clear on what’s expected. Drawing on fifty years of research and his own field experience with governments, utilities, and health agencies, he shows how to create those conditions, and that they work.

That’s good news. Cooperation doesn’t have to depend on willpower or payments. What we need is an environment where doing our part is visible, unexcused, and expected. Whether it be an office, a neighborhood, or a country, we can achieve the cooperation we so desperately need.