The effect of social categorization on cooperation in three types of social dilemmas.

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.

[1]  David A. Wilder,et al.  Social Categorization: Implications for Creation and Reduction of Intergroup Bias , 1986, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.

[2]  V. L. Allen,et al.  Categorization, belief similarity, and intergroup discrimination , 1975 .

[3]  Wim B. G. Liebrand,et al.  Value Orientation and Conformity , 1986 .

[4]  David A. Kravitz,et al.  Cooperative choice in N-person dilemma situation. , 1980 .

[5]  M. Horwitz,et al.  Arousal of ingroup-outgroup bias by a chance win or loss. , 1969, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  S. Komorita,et al.  Cooperative choice among individuals versus groups in an N-person dilemma situation. , 1982 .

[7]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Choice behavior in social dilemmas: Effects of social identity, group size, and decision framing. , 1986 .

[8]  Henry Hamburger,et al.  Games As Models of Social Phenomena , 1979 .

[9]  L. A. Goodman.  The Analysis of Multidimensional Contingency Tables: Stepwise Procedures and Direct Estimation Methods for Building Models for Multiple Classifications , 1971 .

[10]  J. M. Rabbie.  Chapter 6 – The Effects of Intergroup Competition and Cooperation on Intragroup and Intergroup Relationships , 1982 .

[11]  J. M. Rabbie,et al.  Intergroup competition and its effect on intragroup and intergroup relations , 1971 .

[12]  M. Brewer.  In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. , 1979 .

[13]  M. Hogg,et al.  Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. , 1989 .

[14]  Wim B. G. Liebrand,et al.  A Classification of Social Dilemma Games , 1983 .

[15]  A. Colman.  Game theory and experimental games , 1982 .

[16]  M. Brewer,et al.  Effects of group identity on resource use in a simulated commons dilemma. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.