• Active learning introduction to the course • Discussion: class expectations, assignments, effective learning methods. • Lecture: A multidisciplinary approach towards understanding human cooperation.

● How and why do researchers use qualitative and quantitative methods to study human cooperation? ● The basic evolutionary mechanisms such as direct reciprocity, reputation, punishment supporting cooperation ● What can we learn from great apes and children about cooperation? ● The basic psychological mechanisms from a developmental and comparative perspective.

● The role of social cognition in cooperation. ● The importance of attention sharing, knowledge sharing and shared experiences for cooperation ● Nonverbal signals that support cooperation (eye contact and pointing).

• Psychology of intimate romantic relationships • The role of understanding and how intimacy works • Marriage and family as an “institution” • Building close friendships (compassion)

- Perspective taking- the mental capacity to understand other people and their behavior by ascribing mental states to them - Empathy as a complex and fading phenomenon - How to develop empathy.

Altruism as freely chosen helping behavior at personal cost ● Workplace generosity: reciprocity styles and outcomes ● Charitable giving as an altruistic activity ● Differences in networking with others among reciprocity styles

● The dynamics of building trust ● Social trust and sense of obligation to cooperate ● Cultural inhibitors/ facilitators of trust

• The anatomy of effective apologies • Watch documentary “As We Forgive” about the Rwandan reconciliation process after genocide • The relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation • Forgiveness, truth and moral distancing

• Simulations: • The basic ideas behind the key concepts in game theory, such as equilibrium, rationality, and cooperation. • Prisoner’s dilemma and how to escape it • The Stag Hunt game and social structure

• Negative psychological and physiological effects of trauma • What post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is and is not • Social impacts of personal suffering • Pro-social uses of adversity • Altruism borne of suffering

• Enculturation & Acculturation in group contexts • The Robber’s Cave experiment • Psychology of implicit bias, group rivalry and hatred • Contact theory and cooperative antidotes to group conflict and hatred

The tragedy of the commons ● Conflict between short-term individual interests and long-term collective interests ● Managing common-pool resources ● Understanding depletion of natural resources through game theory

● Strategies for sustaining cooperation ● Implications for public policy and business ● Implications for private life ● Digital tools to improve cooperation ● Presentations of experimental research findings