Cooperation and Corruption

I read https://phys.org/news/2024-02-combines-theories-people-cooperate.html (please read too) and after musing over for a day or so I came to realize that cooperation and corruption share certain core characteristics. Below is the summing up : 

We have the driver (reason) for cooperation and corruption in expected Payoff (in plain language ‘what do I get for it’; in business, 'the return for investment').  It is understood that the expected payoff must be worth the effort and/or risk.  

How does cooperation (or corruption) get started? 

The article (above) tells us of two important factors:  

• Kinship (see notes below for more formal definitions) or ‘deep relations’ allow ‘trust’ to develop; from trust, a scheme of cooperative/corruptive ‘activities’ is drawn up.   
• Group Competition (see notes below) is derived from individuals' competitiveness (we all have this characteristic to compare with others). For some reasons, more individuals must form a group (kin) in order to achieve the [greater] payoff. Competitiveness of individuals is combined to form group competitiveness in competition with other groups. One often used justification for cooperation (and yes corruption too) is to obtain better result (payoff) than other groups.   

What is the difference between cooperation and corruption?

We may say cooperation is for the ‘fair and just’ benefits of both or all  parties involved depending on contributions or agreements; and corruption is for ‘unfair and unjust’ benefits to a few and all costs to the victims. But really? The payoff distribution is more often ‘hidden’ (in corruption) or ‘publicized’ (in [public] cooperation). In general, we cannot tell --while cooperation and/or corruption is going on.  

What do we learn here?

I learned to free up my reflection from certain ‘labels’ and see similar patterns in remotely related matters. You can learn more than this. But it's your learning, I tell stories - I don't teach. ;-)

Notes

kinship [From WordNet (r) 1.7]
    n 1: a close connection marked by community of interests or
         similarity in nature or character: "found a natural
         affinity with the immigrants"; "felt a deep kinship with
         the other students"; "anthropology's kinship with the
         humanities" [syn: {affinity}]
    2: state of relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or
       adoption [syn: {family relationship}, {relationship}]

– Human beings are competitive (We want to know who the strongest, richest, smartest,... but measuring tools are often incorrectly or inappropriately applied) and ranking is often used to [name, shame an glorify] encourage more competition. Most ranking institutes/agencies are of _single isolated focus_, a collection (matrix) of rankings would offer better [whole] pictures of [the system] of competitors. [This issue is very important in education, but not yet satisfactory resolved.]  

– Cooperation usually applies to independent parties combining resources to achieve certain payoff. Supports among working units in a hierarchical structure are not ‘cooperation’ but ‘under direction’. There are situations when confusions between cooperation and direction arise and later hinder cooperation and lower the payoff. Maintenance or enhancement of kinship and group competition is a form of guarantee.

[Added 25/2/2567BE:  Reciprocal cooperation is common among people. That is cooperation generates more cooperation - as benefits of cooperation are realized in broader circle. It is not clear how corruption generates more corruption. Perhaps, weaknesses in anti-corruption effort are the main factors.]