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

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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