The upside of slackers

The article I read this week is about an experiment done by researchers that looks at yeast populations and whether or not so-called slackers benefit the rest. Classic theory holds that cheating comes at the expense of society as a whole, making populations composed entirely of co-operators the most fit. I thought this was pretty interesting, as we've already discussed group dynamics and what type of people exist in groups, and this article strives to solve the biological basis of group work. In yeast, co-operators are ones that secrete an enzyme called invertase that converts sucrose into glucose. The cheats, or slackers, are strains of yeast that do not secrete invertase, thus enjoying the benefits of glucose without incurring the costs of production.
Researchers found that under certain conditions, slackers actually benefited the population, and that a mix of co-operators and slackers was the combination the yielded the most production.
So-called co-operators and cheats are common in societies from microorganisms to people, and game theory is used to inform economic and social policy. But people are far more complex than yeast and even this microorganism may be too complex to be neatly divided into co-operators and cheats. We all have different strengths and a slacker in one context may be a contributing member of society in another.