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Wealth inequality may boost cooperation, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that the wealth gap encourages people to cooperate when they would otherwise have no incentive to do so.

"In many groups and societies, the temptation to defect is high, which means that cheaters are much better off than cooperators," researcher Ulf Dieckmann of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis said in a news release.

He explains that if a train ticket is very expensive and the probability that cheaters are caught is low, more people will be tempted to cheat and ride free without purchasing a ticket. Likewise if it costs a lot to install required technologies that protect the air and the corresponding environmental regulations are not strict, entrepreneurs will be tempted not to pay for such technologies.

Researchers explained people will have a strong incentive not to cooperate in scenarios where cheating pays off. Thus, leaving the whole group or society worse off.

While it may seem that the best conditions for promoting cooperation are full equity, which applies when all members of a group or society have access to exactly the same level of wealth or resources, the latest study revealed that wealth inequality is more likely to promote cooperation when people interact locally.

Researchers explain this is because rich benefactors promote cooperation in their surroundings, and because this cooperation benefits them, as well as their surroundings, cooperation can spread.

"The goal of our research is to find new mechanisms that foster cooperation," researcher Ádám Kun said in a statement.

The study used a theoretical framework known as evolutionary game theory to look at how people act under different conditions to maximize their own best interest.

"We looked at what is best for people to do, what gives them the highest payoff," Dieckmann said.

Previous research never examined what happens when people start out with different amounts of resources available to them.

"The assumption was always that every player was equal," said Dieckmann. However, this is not the case in reality.

"Not everybody is created equal. The real world is full of heterogeneity," he added.

Researchers said the study provides compelling implications for social planners and tax policy makers, who make decisions that can encourage or discourage wealth inequality.

"As it turns out, inequality is not always a bad thing," said Dieckmann. "While this study is just a first step, ultimately these findings may inform a more objective approach to designing a society's investments into eradicating inequalities."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.