IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0205730.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of attachment and environmental manipulations on cooperative behavior in the prisoner’s dilemma game

Author

Listed:
  • Maliheh Taheri
  • Pia Rotshtein
  • Ulrik Beierholm

Abstract

Cooperation and competition are vital for human survival and for social progress. In this study we examine the impact of external (environmental) and internal (individual differences) factors on the tendency to cooperate or compete in social conflicts. To this end, 53 young adults played blocks of the repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma Game with each other or with a computer. The environmental context was manipulated across blocks, by introducing uncertainty, randomly losing or gaining money. Individual differences were assessed by participants’ attachment style. We found that participants cooperated more when randomly losing money compared to when randomly winning or in the neutral condition. Moreover, in a negative uncertain environment, individuals with higher anxious and avoidant attachment styles cooperated less. The above effects were only observed when playing against a human and not a computer. Overall, the findings highlight the dependency of cooperative behavior on the context as driven by external and internal factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Maliheh Taheri & Pia Rotshtein & Ulrik Beierholm, 2018. "The effect of attachment and environmental manipulations on cooperative behavior in the prisoner’s dilemma game," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0205730
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205730
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205730
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205730&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0205730?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michal Bauer & Christopher Blattman & Julie Chytilová & Joseph Henrich & Edward Miguel & Tamar Mitts, 2016. "Can War Foster Cooperation?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 249-274, Summer.
    2. Biel, Anders & Thogersen, John, 2007. "Activation of social norms in social dilemmas: A review of the evidence and reflections on the implications for environmental behaviour," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 93-112, January.
    3. Almakias, Shaul & Weiss, Avi, 2012. "Ultimatum Game behavior in light of attachment theory," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 515-526.
    4. Kagel, John & McGee, Peter, 2014. "Personality and cooperation in finitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma games," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 274-277.
    5. Butler, David J. & Burbank, Victoria K. & Chisholm, James S., 2011. "The frames behind the games: Player's perceptions of prisoners dilemma, chicken, dictator, and ultimatum games," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 103-114, April.
    6. J. K. Ashton & B. Gerrard & R. Hudson, 2003. "Economic impact of national sporting success: evidence from the London stock exchange," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(12), pages 783-785.
    7. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Boone, Christophe & De Brabander, Bert & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen, 1999. "The impact of personality on behavior in five Prisoner's Dilemma games," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 343-377, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gamze Abramov & Sebastien Miellet & Jason Kautz & Brin F S Grenyer & Frank P Deane, 2020. "The paradoxical decline and growth of trust as a function of borderline personality disorder trait count: Using discontinuous growth modelling to examine trust dynamics in response to violation and re," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nathalie Etchart-Vincent, 2013. "Wording and gender effects in a Game of Chicken. An explorative experimental study," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-00796708, HAL.
    2. Katharina Werner & Ahmed Skali, 2023. "Violent Conflict and Parochial Trust: Lab-in-the-Field and Survey Evidence," HiCN Working Papers 404, Households in Conflict Network.
    3. Hans-Rüdiger Pfister & Gisela Böhm, 2012. "Responder Feelings in a Three-Player Three-Option Ultimatum Game: Affective Determinants of Rejection Behavior," Games, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, February.
    4. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    5. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nathalie Etchart-Vincent, 2013. "Cooperation: The Power Of A Single Word? Some Experimental Evidence On Wording And Gender Effects In A Game Of Chicken," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 43-64, January.
    6. Truong, Quang-Thai & Tran, Quynh-Nhu & Bakry, Walid & Nguyen, Duc Nguyen & Al-Mohamad, Somar, 2021. "Football sentiment and stock market returns: Evidence from a frontier market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    7. Aloysius Suratin & Suyud Warno Utomo & Dwi Nowo Martono & Kosuke Mizuno, 2023. "Indonesia’s Renewable Natural Resource Management in the Low-Carbon Transition: A Conundrum in Changing Trajectories," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-17, July.
    8. Ynte Dam & Janneke Jonge, 2015. "The Positive Side of Negative Labelling," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 19-38, March.
    9. Diemo Urbig & Katrin Muehlfeld & Vivien Procher & Arjen Witteloostuijn, 2020. "Strategic Decision-Making in a Global Context: The Comprehension Effect of Foreign Language Use on Cooperation," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 351-385, June.
    10. Ek, Kristina & Söderholm, Patrik, 2008. "Households' switching behavior between electricity suppliers in Sweden," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 254-261, December.
    11. Sapulete, Saraï & van Witteloostuijn, Arjen & Kaufmann, Wesley, 2014. "An experimental study into the influence of works council advice on managerial decision-making," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 358-371.
    12. DeAngelo, Gregory & McCannon, Bryan C., 2017. "Theory of Mind predicts cooperative behavior," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1-4.
    13. Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin & Nathalie Etchart-Vincent, 2012. "The puzzle of cooperation in a game of chicken: an experimental study," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 72(1), pages 65-87, January.
    14. Alex Edmans & Diego García & Øyvind Norli, 2007. "Sports Sentiment and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1967-1998, August.
    15. Mishra, Vinod & Smyth, Russell, 2010. "An examination of the impact of India's performance in one-day cricket internationals on the Indian stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 319-334, June.
    16. Guillen, Pablo & Ji, Daniel, 2011. "Trust, discrimination and acculturation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 594-608.
    17. Elisabete F. Simões Vieira, 2012. "Investor sentiment and market reaction: evidence on 2010 FIFA World Cup," International Journal of Economics and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 51-76.
    18. Ravetti, Chiara & Sarr, Mare & Munene, Daniel & Swanson, Tim, 2019. "Discrimination and favouritism among South African workers: Ethnic identity and union membership," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Lee, K.M.C. & Kraeussl, R.G.W. & Paas, L.J., 2010. "Personality and investment: Personality differences affect investors' adaptation to losses," Serie Research Memoranda 0007, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    20. Khuu, Joyce & Durand, Robert B. & Smales, Lee A., 2016. "Melancholia and Japanese stock returns – 2003 to 2012," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 424-437.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0205730. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.