From Conflict to Coordination: Children as Strategic Problem Solvers in Social Dilemmas

Abstract

Human cooperation requires resolving social dilemmas—situations in which individual interests conflict with what is best for the group. A growing body of work has begun to explore how children develop and implement solutions to these conflicts, shedding new light on the developmental roots of strategic cooperation. The current review highlights children's solutions to three categories of social dilemma: coordination problems, free-rider problems, and resource-depletion problems. A central challenge that cuts across all social dilemmas is that children must form predictions about what others will do and integrate these predictions into their decision-making. Children's solutions to social dilemmas are influenced by repeated interactions, communication, and information about their partners—all factors that help reduce the uncertainty surrounding others’ behavior. Children's emerging solutions to social dilemmas highlight the building blocks of a crucial feature of human sociality: the ability to transform potential conflicts into opportunities for mutual benefit.