Interdependence and cooperation in daily life.

Abstract

Philosophers and scientists have long debated the nature of human social interactions and the prevalence of mutual dependence, conflict of interests, and power asymmetry in social situations. Yet, there is surprisingly little empirical work documenting the patterns of interdependence that people experience in daily life. We use experience sampling to study how people think about three dimensions of interdependence in daily life and how these dimensions relate to cooperation. In Study 1, 139 romantic couples (n = 278) reported on situations experienced with their partner (k = 6,766); in Study 2, individuals (n = 284) reported on situations experienced with any other person (k = 7,248), over the course of one week. Across both samples, we found that most social interactions were perceived as containing moderate mutual dependence, equal power, and corresponding interests. When couples reported on the same situation (Study 1), they largely agreed on their experienced interdependence and cooperation, suggesting that their reports reflect an underlying shared reality. In daily interactions across both samples, higher mutual dependence and lower conflict of interests were associated with more cooperation, whereas relative power was not directly related to cooperation. These associations replicated in laboratory experiments (Study 2). In daily life, high mutual dependence and high relative power exacerbated the negative relation between conflict of interests and cooperation. Finally, prevalent patterns of interdependence and the experience of specific interdependent situations affected multiple relationship outcomes. Our findings stress the importance of studying a diverse array of interdependent situations-and especially situations with corresponding interests-to better understand cooperation in daily life.

Fostering Attachment Security: The Role of Interdependent Situations

“…So far, relationship science has given much emphasis to partners’ behaviors, but partners’ actions are strongly tied to the situations that they experience. For example, while it may be very easy to behave in a trustworthy manner in situations of corresponding interests, it may be way more challenging to do so in situations of conflict of interests [ 27 , 33 ]. Interdependence theory [ 13 , 25 ] provides the ideal framework to investigate how the properties of social situations that partners experience shape relationship dynamics and dispositions.…”

“…Second, we assessed each person’s perception of their interdependent situation with their partner, rather than the objective situation that the couple confront. However, previous research has shown that such perceptions tend to track objective features of reality, so there typically is a correspondence between the objective situation and the perceived one [ 26 , 27 ]. Yet it is the subjective construal of the situation, rather than its objective features, that should exert a strong influence on people’s emotions, cognitions, and behavior [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ].…”

“…Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Scientific and Ethical Review Board of the VU Amsterdam (VCWE-2017-003). For further details about the procedure see [ 27 ].…”

“…For each reported situation, participants were required to complete the 10-item Situational Interdependence Scale [ 26 ]. The 10-item version of the SIS has been designed to measure situation-specific perceptions of the five interdependence features and has been shown to be reliable and valid [ 26 , 27 ]. All items, excluding power, were answered on five-point Likert-type scales (1 = completely disagree, 5 = completely agree).…”

“…In fact, key features of the situations may activate people’s concerns about how partners may respond to those situations and, accordingly, may increase or decrease people’s fear about whether their partner will be responsive to their needs. When partners encounter a situation with corresponding interests, they are likely to feel in harmony, connected, and achieve good outcomes because both partners share the same desires [ 27 ]. While anyone can benefit from these types of situations, we posit that individuals who feel insecure in their relationship benefit especially from these situations.…”