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Confusion of Group Interest and Self-Interest in Parochial Cooperation on Behalf of a Group

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  • Jonathan Baron

    (Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

People often sacrifice their self-interest for a group to which they belong, even when outsiders are harmed so that the sacrifice has no net benefit. Two experiments (conducted on the World Wide Web) suggest that people do this, in part, because they think that cooperation on behalf of the group is in their narrow self-interest; they show an enhanced self-interest illusion. One experiment found that the self-interest illusion is related to the enhanced tendency to cooperate on behalf of a group when the insiders' gain is the outsiders' loss. A second experiment found that the illusion (and the resulting parochial cooperation) was reduced when subjects were required to calculate all gains and losses.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Baron, 2001. "Confusion of Group Interest and Self-Interest in Parochial Cooperation on Behalf of a Group," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 45(3), pages 283-296, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:45:y:2001:i:3:p:283-296
    DOI: 10.1177/0022002701045003002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Riker, William H. & Ordeshook, Peter C., 1968. "A Theory of the Calculus of Voting," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 25-42, March.
    5. Michael Birnbaum, 2000. "Psychological experiments on the internet," Framed Field Experiments 00125, The Field Experiments Website.
    6. Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine & Simmons, Randy T, 1990. "The Layered Prisoners' Dilemma: Ingroup versus Macro-efficiency," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 61-83, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Delaney, Jason & Jacobson, Sarah, 2014. "Those outsiders: How downstream externalities affect public good provision," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 340-352.
    2. Nicholas Wilson, 2012. "Shock to the System: Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV and Child Mortality," Department of Economics Working Papers 2012-03, Department of Economics, Williams College, revised Jul 2013.
    3. repec:cup:judgdm:v:13:y:2018:i:1:p:79-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Rineke Verbrugge & Ben Meijering & Stefan Wierda & Hedderik van Rijn & Niels Taatgen, 2018. "Stepwise training supports strategic second-order theory of mind in turn-taking games," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 13(1), pages 79-98, January.

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