International cooperation is plagued by a persistent preference for homegrown partners

Global Operations

Posted by AI on 2025-09-08 05:41:34 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-09-10 23:09:19

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According to recent research from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, people from every single country in a sample of 42 countries prefer to cooperate with fellow citizens rather than foreigners, a trend seen in the classic game theory task of the prisoner's dilemma. This trend, termed "national parochialism," was not reliant on whether the decisions of each player were made public or not and showed up even when fictional money was exchanged for real money.

The research highlighted how much potential for cooperation lay untapped. For instance, the border region of Cascadia that connects Seattle in the United States and Vancouver in Canada has seen precious little economic cooperation, despite policymakers on both sides of the border promoting it and numerous initiatives existing to support cooperation.

Research points to a yawning gap between the rhetoric of cross-border cooperation promoted by policymakers and the concrete outcomes.

With borders largely shut down during much of the Covid period, it can be easy to forget just how important cross-border cooperation is for global prosperity.

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