Cooperative sustainability: a case for collective intelligence

Group-dwelling species face challenges that can be overcome with collective intelligence (CI): problem-solving abilities of collectives that outpace those of individuals. The breadth of topics within CI is large and growing-simultaneously a strength and a limitation of the field. This article explores a methodological approach for mitigating these limitations by examining variability across species, strategy types and cognitive abilities within the same challenging context: common-pool resource (CPR) dilemmas. In doing so, I formulate a framework for categorizing the breadth of strategies for overcoming CPR dilemmas based on their social cognitive demands. Broadly, these strategies can be grouped into ecological sustainability mechanisms and cooperative sustainability strategies (CSS), ranging from bats sustaining their food supply via diminishing returns of overconsumption to the human practice of developing rules and institutions to manage resources sustainably. I then outline existing connections between CSS and CI, highlight key points of synthesis and discuss how integrating these two fields could generate new research avenues. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of collective intelligence'.