The effect of social categorization on cooperation in three types of social dilemmas
- 31 March 1992
- journal article
- Published by Elsevier BV in Journal of Economic Psychology
- Vol. 13 (1), 135-151
- https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-4870(92)90056-d
Abstract
The present study investigated whether cooperation in various social dilemmas could be promoted by categorizing subjects at a group level rather than at a personal level. Three types of games were employed, i.e. the Prisoner's Dilemma Game (PDG), the Chicken Dilemma Game (CDG) and the Trust Dilemma Game (TDG). Categorization level (Group vs. Personal) and Type of Game (PDG vs. CDG vs. TDG) constituted the 2 × 3 factorial design. As predicted from Social Identity Theory, Group Categorization elicited more cooperation than Personal Categorization. Additional data sustained a social identification interpretation. Second, it was investigated whether the rank order in cooperation among the three games, which were presented to the subjects in a lifelike format, would replicate the rank order observed in an abstract gaming study, and it did: in the PDG fewer cooperative choices were made than in the CDG, whereas in the CDG fewer cooperative choices were made than in the TDG.Keywords
This publication has 12 references indexed in Scilit:
- Common fate, similarity, and other indices of the status of aggregates of persons as social entitiesBehavioral Science, 2007
- Choice behavior in social dilemmas: Effects of social identity, group size, and decision framing.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1986
- Value Orientation and ConformityJournal of Conflict Resolution, 1986
- Effects of group identity on resource use in a simulated commons dilemma.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1984
- A Classification of Social Dilemma GamesSimulation & Games, 1983
- Cooperative choice among individuals versus groups in an N-person dilemma situation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1982
- Cooperative choice in N-person dilemma situation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1980
- In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis.Psychological Bulletin, 1979
- Categorization, belief similarity, and intergroup discrimination.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975
- The Analysis of Multidimensional Contingency Tables: Stepwise Procedures and Direct Estimation Methods for Building Models for Multiple ClassificationsTechnometrics, 1971