Ego-relevance in team production

We study how individuals’ contribution to a team production task varies depending on whether the task is ego relevant or not. We design and conduct an experiment to test the effect of ego-relevance when the team output depends on the top- and the bottom-performer of the group. Ego-relevance is manipulated by calling the Raven IQ Test an “IQ Task” or a “Pattern Task”. We find that the contribution, which corresponds to an allocation of intended effort in the task, is affected by ego-relevance and the nature of the team production. However, both effects are mediated by the expected teammate’s contribution. Ego-relevance increases the responsiveness to the expected teammate’s behavior, a behavior that is also more noticeable when the team output depends on the bottom-performer. Nevertheless, we do not observe crossed-effects between ego-relevance and the nature of team production.