There is an interesting experiment conducted by experimental economists. The experiment examines whether a participant entrusts money while trusting another participant. If the other participant returns the entrusted money, the money is tripled and the first participant receives a great reward. However, the other participant has the opportunity to keep the money for himself, which means that the first participant loses what he has entrusted to the second. The participants' behavior in the experiment is completely anonymous. Therefore, the other participant does not need to worry about what he does being revealed to the other experimenter. Pairs of economics professors who study game theory and pairs of college students participated in the experiment. Professors, who know game theory understand that "rational" behavior for those who receive the entrusted money is to keep it to themselves and not to return it, were less likely to trust each other than college students who do not fully understand what is "rational" behavior in such a situation. Therefore, professors failed to enjoy the benefits which they would have received had they trusted each other. The results of this experiment plainly suggest that people cannot establish cooperative relationships insofar as their behavior is based on rational calculations of their self-interest. Ironically, people who are ignorant of game theory and do not understand what is "rational" can trust each other and create cooperative relationships. On the other hand, naive people can be exploited or abused by others if they indiscriminatingly trust other people. The goal of this project is to discover the psychological mechanisms that make it possible for humans to promote mutual trust and cooperation and create the societies. We often behave irrationally and emotionally in various aspects of our life. We pursue the secret of human sociality, a function that makes us build and maintain societies in the face of such irrational emotions. The current project aims to explain the secret of human sociality, something that makes us social animals.

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