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Divided Loyalists or Conditional Cooperators? Creating Consensus about Cooperation in Multiple Simultaneous Social Dilemmas

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  • McCarter, Matthew
  • Samek, Anya
  • Sheremeta, Roman

Abstract

The current social dilemma literature lacks theoretical consensus regarding how individuals behave when facing multiple simultaneous social dilemmas. The divided-loyalty hypothesis, from organizational theory, predicts that cooperation will decline as individuals experience multiple social dilemmas with different compared to the same group members. The conditional-cooperation hypothesis, from behavioral economics, predicts that cooperation will increase as individuals experience multiple social dilemmas with different compared to the same group members. We employ a laboratory experiment to create consensus between these literatures and find support for the conditional-cooperation hypothesis. The positive effect of interacting with different group members comes from participants having an opportunity to shift their cooperative behavior from the less cooperative to the more cooperative group.

Suggested Citation

  • McCarter, Matthew & Samek, Anya & Sheremeta, Roman, 2014. "Divided Loyalists or Conditional Cooperators? Creating Consensus about Cooperation in Multiple Simultaneous Social Dilemmas," MPRA Paper 58120, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:58120
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    Cited by:

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    3. Catola, Marco & D’Alessandro, Simone & Guarnieri, Pietro & Pizziol, Veronica, 2023. "Multilevel public goods game: Levelling up, substitution and crowding-in effects," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
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    5. Andrea F.M. Martinangeli & Peter Martinsson, 2019. "We, the Rich: Inequality, Identity and Cooperation in Complex Societies," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2019-19, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    6. Gabriel Hoh Teck Ling & Pau Chung Leng & Chin Siong Ho, 2019. "Effects of Diverse Property Rights on Rural Neighbourhood Public Open Space (POS) Governance: Evidence from Sabah, Malaysia," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-33, June.
    7. Shakun D. Mago & Anya C. Savikhin & Roman M. Sheremeta, 2012. "Facing Your Opponents: Social identification and information feedback in contests," Working Papers 12-15, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    8. Gallier, Carlo & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Lohse, Johannes & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2019. "Leveling up? An inter-neighborhood experiment on parochialism and the efficiency of multi-level public goods provision," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 500-517.
    9. Florian Engl & Arno Riedl & Roberto Weber, 2021. "Spillover Effects of Institutions on Cooperative Behavior, Preferences, and Beliefs," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 261-299, November.
    10. Tracy Xiao Liu & Jenna Bednar & Yan Chen & Scott Page, 2019. "Directional behavioral spillover and cognitive load effects in multiple repeated games," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(3), pages 705-734, September.
    11. Angelovski, Andrej & Di Cagno, Daniela & Güth, Werner & Marazzi, Francesca & Panaccione, Luca, 2018. "Behavioral spillovers in local public good provision: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 116-134.
    12. Gallier, Carlo & Goeschl, Timo & Kesternich, Martin & Lohse, Johannes & Reif, Christiane & Römer, Daniel, 2019. "Leveling up? An inter-neighborhood experiment on parochialism and the efficiency of multi-level public goods provision," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 500-517.
    13. Roman M. Sheremeta, 2018. "Behavior In Group Contests: A Review Of Experimental Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 683-704, July.
    14. Abhijit Ramalingam & Brock V. Stoddard & James M. Walker, 2021. "Naturally occurring enhancements to competition for talent in teams​," GRU Working Paper Series GRU_2021_021, City University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics and Finance, Global Research Unit.
    15. Tjaša Bjedov & Simon Lapointe & Thierry Madiès & Marie Claire Villeval, 2018. "Does decentralization of decisions increase the stability of large groups?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(4), pages 681-716, December.
    16. Marco Catola & Simone D'Alessandro & Pietro Guarnieri & Veronica Pizziol, 2020. "Multilevel Public Goods Game: an Online Experiment," Discussion Papers 2020/263, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    17. Anya Samek & Roman M. Sheremeta, 2016. "When Identifying Contributors is Costly: An Experiment on Public Goods," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(3), pages 801-808, January.
    18. Zvonimir Bašic & Parampreet C. Bindra & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Angelo Romano & Matthias Sutter & Claudia Zoller, 2024. "The roots of cooperation," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2024_02, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    19. Alexander Smith, 2015. "Modeling the dynamics of contributions and beliefs in repeated public good games," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(3), pages 1501-1509.
    20. Abhijit Ramalingam & Brock V. Stoddard & James M. Walker, 2020. "Naturally occurring enhancements to competition for talent in teams," Working Papers 21-02, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    21. Corazzini, Luca & Cotton, Christopher & Valbonesi, Paola, 2015. "Donor coordination in project funding: Evidence from a threshold public goods experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 16-29.
    22. Martinangeli, Andrea F.M. & Martinsson, Peter, 2020. "We, the rich: Inequality, identity and cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 249-266.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cooperation; conditional cooperation; defection; loyalty; experiments; public goods; social dilemmas;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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