Group Size Effect on Cooperation on Social Dilemmas

Barcelo, Hélène; Capraro, Valerio

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2425030

“…However, a number of other theories could explain both the existence of benevolence and its positive correlation with cooperative behaviour. Several experimental studies have shown that many people act so as to maximise the total welfare [44,45] and some of the most recent mathematical models of human behaviour are indeed based on postulating this tendency [9,44,46,47]. This predisposition might explain why benevolent people exist and are more cooperative: our results might be due to a number of people attempting to maximise the total welfare.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Benevolent Characteristics Promote Cooperative Behaviour among Humans

Capraro

¹

,

Smyth

²

,

Mylona

³

et al. 2014

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Cooperation is fundamental to the evolution of human society. We regularly observe cooperative behaviour in everyday life and in controlled experiments with anonymous people, even though standard economic models predict that they should deviate from the collective interest and act so as to maximise their own individual payoff. However, there is typically heterogeneity across subjects: some may cooperate, while others may not. Since individual factors promoting cooperation could be used by institutions to indirectly prime cooperation, this heterogeneity raises the important question of who these cooperators are. We have conducted a series of experiments to study whether benevolence, defined as a unilateral act of paying a cost to increase the welfare of someone else beyond one's own, is related to cooperation in a subsequent one-shot anonymous Prisoner's dilemma. Contrary to the predictions of the widely used inequity aversion models, we find that benevolence does exist and a large majority of people behave this way. We also find benevolence to be correlated with cooperative behaviour. Finally, we show a causal link between benevolence and cooperation: priming people to think positively about benevolent behaviour makes them significantly more cooperative than priming them to think malevolently. Thus benevolent people exist and cooperate more.

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“…However, a number of other theories could explain both the existence of benevolence and its positive correlation with cooperative behaviour. Several experimental studies have shown that many people act so as to maximise the total welfare [24,51,52] and some of the most recent mathematical models of human behaviour are indeed based on postulating this tendency [9,25,51,53]. See [54,55] for a review of other models of cooperation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assume individual factor X is known to promote cooperation, then creating an environment which favours factor X will also promote cooperation. Existence of one or more such factors is suggested by the numerous experimental studies showing that humans do tend to behave cooperatively, even in anonymous, isolated environments where communications or long-term strategies are not allowed [21][22][23][24][25]. These studies have shown that humans are heterogeneous: some may cooperate, while others may not.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benevolent Characteristics Promote Cooperative Behaviour Among Humans

Capraro¹,

Smyth

²

,

Mylona

³

et al. 2014

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cooperation is fundamental to the evolution of human society. We regularly observe cooperative behaviour in everyday life and in controlled experiments with anonymous people, even though standard economic models predict that they should deviate from the collective interest and act so as to maximise their own individual payoff. However, there is typically heterogeneity across subjects: some may cooperate, while others may not. Since individual factors promoting cooperation could be used by institutions to indirectly prime cooperation, this heterogeneity raises the important question of who these cooperators are. We have conducted a series of experiments to study whether benevolence, defined as a unilateral act of paying a cost to increase the welfare of someone else beyond one's own, is related to cooperation in a subsequent one-shot anonymous Prisoner's dilemma. Contrary to the predictions of the widely used inequity aversion models, we find that benevolence does exist and a large majority of people behave this way. We also find benevolence to be correlated with cooperative behaviour. Finally, we show a causal link between benevolence and cooperation: priming people to think positively about benevolent behaviour makes them significantly more cooperative than priming them to think malevolently. Thus benevolent people exist and cooperate more.

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“…Since cooperation is individually costly, standard economic models predict that people should not cooperate (unless the game is repeated, in which case theoretical models predict 18 19 20 21 22 , and behavioural experiments demonstrate 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 , that cooperation can be favoured via ‘reciprocity'; in repeated games, even selfish players may cooperate in order to gain the benefits of reciprocal cooperation in future periods 30 ). Yet cooperation in one-time encounters with strangers is common outside the laboratory, and a substantial amount of cooperative behaviour is observed in one-shot PD experiments in the lab with anonymous players 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Heuristics guide the implementation of social preferences in one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma experiments

Capraro

¹

,

Jordan

²

,

Rand

³

2014

Sci Rep

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Cooperation in one-shot anonymous interactions is a widely documented aspect of human behaviour. Here we shed light on the motivations behind this behaviour by experimentally exploring cooperation in a one-shot continuous-strategy Prisoner's Dilemma (i.e. one-shot two-player Public Goods Game). We examine the distribution of cooperation amounts, and how that distribution varies based on the benefit-to-cost ratio of cooperation (b/c). Interestingly, we find a trimodal distribution at all b/c values investigated. Increasing b/c decreases the fraction of participants engaging in zero cooperation and increases the fraction engaging in maximal cooperation, suggesting a role for efficiency concerns. However, a substantial fraction of participants consistently engage in 50% cooperation regardless of b/c. The presence of these persistent 50% cooperators is surprising, and not easily explained by standard models of social preferences. We present evidence that this behaviour is a result of social preferences guided by simple decision heuristics, rather than the rational examination of payoffs assumed by most social preference models. We also find a strong correlation between play in the Prisoner's Dilemma and in a subsequent Dictator Game, confirming previous findings suggesting a common prosocial motivation underlying altruism and cooperation.

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Group Size Effect on Cooperation on Social Dilemmas

Cited by 8 publications

References 63 publications

Benevolent Characteristics Promote Cooperative Behaviour among Humans

Benevolent Characteristics Promote Cooperative Behaviour among Humans

Benevolent Characteristics Promote Cooperative Behaviour Among Humans

Heuristics guide the implementation of social preferences in one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma experiments

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