Cooperation and Optimism in a Social Dilemma

Oyediran, Olusegun A.; Rivas, Mercedes; Coulson, Mark; Kernohan, David

doi:10.1111/boer.12161

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…A possibility here is that younger individuals are less optimistic about their future and about the behaviour of others, which in turn pushes them to be instinctively more cautious about the potential consequences of their cooperative behaviour. The fact that older participants were more optimistic than younger ones also aligns with previous findings and with the socioemotional selectivity theory which posits that aging is associated with increasing motivation to derive emotional meaning from life, leading to a general positivity bias 52,53 . The fact that older people were found to be more optimistic, promoting their contributions in the PGG as well as their expectation about others' positive intentions, appears to support the claim that motivations and investments change during aging (with optimism being a mechanism driving such changes).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…We also found that optimism shapes expectations about partners' contributions, so that more optimistic individuals acted more cooperatively in the PGG themselves and also expected their partners to be more www.nature.com/scientificreports/ cooperative 52 . Importantly, our data show that optimism grows with age, which can partly account for the reflective approach to cooperation in adolescence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

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Age-dependent changes in intuitive and deliberative cooperation

Nava

Margoni

Herath

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

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Cooperation is one of the most advantageous strategies to have evolved in small- and large-scale human societies, often considered essential to their success or survival. We investigated how cooperation and the mechanisms influencing it change across the lifespan, by assessing cooperative choices from adolescence to old age (12–79 years, N = 382) forcing participants to decide either intuitively or deliberatively through the use of randomised time constraints. As determinants of these choices, we considered participants’ level of altruism, their reciprocity expectations, their optimism, their desire to be socially accepted, and their attitude toward risk. We found that intuitive decision-making favours cooperation, but only from age 20 when a shift occurs: whereas in young adults, intuition favours cooperation, in adolescents it is reflection that favours cooperation. Participants’ decisions were shown to be rooted in their expectations about other people’s cooperative behaviour and influenced by individuals’ level of optimism about their own future, revealing that the journey to the cooperative humans we become is shaped by reciprocity expectations and individual predispositions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Age-dependent changes in intuitive and deliberative cooperation

Nava

Margoni

Herath

et al. 2023

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We also found that optimism shapes expectations about partners' contributions, so that more optimistic individuals acted more cooperatively in the PGG themselves and also expected their partners to be more cooperative 36 . Importantly, our data show that optimism grows with age, which can partly account for the reflective approach to cooperation in adolescence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…The fact that older participants were more optimistic than younger ones also aligns with previous findings and with the socioemotional selectivity theory. The latter posits that aging is associated with increasing motivation to derive emotional meaning from life, leading to a general positivity bias 36,37 . The fact that older people were found to be more optimistic, promoting their contributions in the PGG as well as their expectation about others' positive intentions, appears to support the claim that motivations and investments change during aging (with optimism being a mechanism driving such changes).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-dependent Changes in Intuitive and Deliberative Cooperation

Nava¹,

Margoni²,

Herath³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Cooperation is one of the most advantageous strategies to have evolved in small and large-scale human societies, often considered essential to their success or survival. We investigated how cooperation and the mechanisms influencing it change across the lifespan. Using incentivised economic games, we assessed cooperative choices from adolescence to older age (12-79 years) forcing participants to decide either intuitively or deliberatively through the use of randomised time constraints. As determinants of these choices, we considered participants’ level of altruism, their social expectations, their optimism, their desire to be socially accepted, and their attitude toward risk. We found that intuitive decision-making favours cooperation, but only from age 20 when a shift occurs: while in young adults, intuition favours cooperation, in adolescents it is reflection that favours cooperation. Adults and older adults were found to be most cooperative, with intuition still favouring cooperation in older adults, but not in working-age adults where well-established social cooperative heuristics govern both intuitive and deliberative decision making. Participants’ decisions were shown to be rooted in their expectations about other people’s cooperative behaviour and influenced by individuals’ level of optimism about their own future. We show that intuition promotes cooperation only after adolescence, and that the journey to the cooperative humans we become is shaped by reciprocity expectations and individual predispositions.

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“…Further, the anterior insula and IFG have been linked to the way people update beliefs relevant to personally relevant optimism biases in the face of new information (Kuzmanovic et al, 2016 ; Moutsiana et al, 2015 ). Within this optimism‐pessimism dimension a bias towards characters perceived as warm—warmth itself is linked to trust (Oyediran et al, 2018 ; Shkurko, 2013 )—played an important role.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Within‐network brain connectivity during a social optimism task is related to personal optimism and optimism for in‐group members

Moser

Dricu

Kotikalapudi

et al. 2023

Human Brain Mapping

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Optimism bias is the tendency to believe desirable events are more likely to happen than undesirable ones. People often display optimistic biases for themselves (personal optimism), but also for members of groups they like or identify with (social optimism). However, the neural bases of and connections between these two concepts are poorly understood. The present study hence used both questionnaires and a social optimism task performed during magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how network connectivity associates with personal and social optimism biases. Using sparse canonical correlation analysis, we found that a behavioral dimension that included both in-group optimism bias and personal optimism bias was positively associated with a dimension of network connectivity. This dimension comprised two networks with positive weights (dorsal precuneus-related default mode network and dorsal sensorimotor network), and three with negative weights (including parts of the salience and central executive networks). Our findings indicate that connectivity in networks adjacent to the temporoparietal junction favors propagation of both personal and social optimism biases. Meanwhile, low connectivity in more frontal networks associated with more complex cognition may also further such propagation.

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Cooperation and Optimism in a Social Dilemma

Abstract: We examine the influence of optimism about local and foreign people on social cooperation using a public goods game. Firstly, we find that optimism fuels social cooperation, and secondly, that this positive effect holds when optimism is focused either jointly or individually.

Cited by 3 publications

References 24 publications

Age-dependent changes in intuitive and deliberative cooperation

Age-dependent changes in intuitive and deliberative cooperation

Age-dependent Changes in Intuitive and Deliberative Cooperation

Within‐network brain connectivity during a social optimism task is related to personal optimism and optimism for in‐group members

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