Gains, losses, and cooperation in social dilemmas and collective action: The effects of risk preferences
- 1 December 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in The Journal of Mathematical Sociology
- Vol. 22 (3), 263-302
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0022250x.1997.9990204
Abstract
We address two related issues. First, we analyze the effects of risk preferences on cooperation in social dilemmas. Second, we compare social dilemmas in which outcomes represent gains with dilemmas where outcomes represent losses. We show that predictions on gain‐loss asymmetries with respect to conditions for cooperation crucially depend on assumptions concerning risk preferences. Under the assumption of risk aversion for gains as well as losses together with an assumption of decreasing absolute risk aversion, conditions for cooperation are less restrictive if outcomes represent losses than if outcomes represent gains. Conversely ‐ and counterintuitively ‐ under the assumption of S‐shaped utility, conditions for cooperation are more restrictive if outcomes represent losses than if outcomes represent gains. We provide an experimental test of such predictions. Only a minority of subjects behaves consistent with the assumption of S‐shaped utility. Furthermore, we find no empirical evidence for a general difference between cooperation in social dilemmas in which outcomes represent gains and dilemmas where outcomes represent losses. We do find evidence that risk preferences affect cooperation rates.Keywords
This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Effects of Decision Framing and Others' Behavior on Cooperation in a Social DilemmaJournal of Conflict Resolution, 1988
- The Folk Theorem in Repeated Games with Discounting or with Incomplete InformationEconometrica, 1986
- Choice behavior in social dilemmas: Effects of social identity, group size, and decision framing.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- Expecting Continued Play in Prisoner's Dilemma GamesJournal of Conflict Resolution, 1983
- Risk Aversion and Nash's Solution for Bargaining Games with Risky OutcomesEconometrica, 1982
- Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under RiskEconometrica, 1979
- The Role of Attitude Toward Risk in Strictly Competitive Decision-Making SituationsManagement Science, 1978
- Prisoner’s Dilemma — Recollections and ObservationsPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,1974
- The Utility of WealthJournal of Political Economy, 1952
- The Utility Analysis of Choices Involving RiskJournal of Political Economy, 1948