discipleOfTea

The problem is imo that backstabbing/betrayal can reap greater benefits than cooperation. The only counterplay is either securing yourself against it by assuming an adversary as default or built relationships up where you know you can trust the person. The latter however takes time which limits the ammount of people you can built trust with.

Contracts fall into treating the other party as an adversary- that's why you have all the clauses against betrayal and we can see empirically that among those who don't follow this practice many get fleeced. It is thereby a hostile enviroment. The point here is on topic that you have to dehumanize and treat the other party as an adversary to protect yourself when dealing with random people you work with prior contact.

I've read it, in our society we have however a different situation as you can quit whenever you want and find new people to play with who are unaware of your past deeds. This allows to play fair til betrayal seems worth the cost of having to find a new player. Scammers stay in bussiness as they can continue to find new people who choose to trust initially. The only mechanic we have against this is reputation but that is getting undermined using shell companies and false reviews.