One curious phenomenon of several social groups is that they are ‘redundant’ in the sense that they contain more cooperators than strictly needed to complete certain group tasks, such as foraging. Redundancy is puzzling because redundant groups are particularly susceptible to invasion by defectors. Yet, redundancy can be found in groups formed by a wide range of organisms, including insects and microbes. Birch ([2012]) has recently argued that coercive behaviours might account for redundancy using insect colonies as a case study. However, microbial examples suggest redundancy can evolve without coercive behaviours. This paper formulates an explanation for redundancy that does not require targeted punishment of defectors; instead, it proposes that redundancy might be due to ignorance. Specifically, it is suggested that redundancy evolves as a by-product of selection when group members have to opt whether to cooperate or not while being blind to the strategies of others. Accordingly, possessing information about the strategies of the group members might undermine rather than facilitate cooperation within groups.

中文翻译：

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盲目合作：无知导致冗余的演变

几个社会群体的一个奇怪现象是它们是“冗余的”，因为它们包含的合作者比完成某些群体任务（例如觅食）所严格需要的要多。冗余是令人费解的，因为冗余的群体特别容易受到叛逃者的入侵。然而，在由包括昆虫和微生物在内的各种生物组成的群体中可以发现冗余。Birch ([2012]) 最近认为，使用昆虫群落作为案例研究，强制行为可能是造成冗余的原因。然而，微生物的例子表明冗余可以在没有强制行为的情况下进化。本文对不需要对叛逃者进行针对性惩罚的裁员进行了解释；相反，它提出冗余可能是由于无知。具体来说，有人认为，当群体成员不得不选择是否合作而对其他人的策略视而不见时，冗余会演变为选择的副产品。因此，掌握有关团体成员战略的信息可能会破坏而不是促进团体内的合作。