Globalisation Increases Cooperation at an International Scale | Seed ScienceBlogs

Post by Ed Young in Not Exactly Rocket Science. He fails to distinguish globalization (the free flow of capital) from internationalization (the increasing importance of international relations and communications - as well as trade based on competitive advantage) but cites some interesting new research.

Some say that globalisation makes the differences between ethnic or geographical groups even starker, strengthening the lines between them. ...

Others take a more optimistic stance, arguing that in a globalised world, people are more likely to find a sense of common belonging and concepts of ethnicity or nationhood become less relevant. ...

Nancy Buchan from the University of South Carolina has used a clever psychological game to show that the latter perspective is stronger. Her group recruited volunteers from six countries across five continents and asked them to play a game where they could cooperate with each other at local or global levels. She found that people who were more connected internationally, or who came from more globalised countries, were more likely to work together at a global level. Globalisation, it seems, breed cosmopolitan attitudes, not insular ones.