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Perceptions of morality and competence in (non)interdependent games.
Joachim I Krueger1, Theresa E DiDonato
1Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, United States. Joachim_Krueger@Brown.edu
Acta Psychologica
|February 2, 2010
Summary
Aligning expectations with actions protects social reputation in interdependent scenarios. This finding highlights how perceived intentions influence social judgments, particularly in group dilemmas.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Game Theory
Background:
- Individual actions and beliefs shape social perceptions.
- The prisoner's dilemma illustrates interdependent decision-making.
- Social projection describes inferring others' traits based on one's own.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how individuals' expectations about others' behavior moderate the impact of their own actions on social reputation.
- To determine if this moderating effect is contingent on the interdependence of outcomes.
- To validate the role of inductive reasoning in social perception.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted, including a prisoner's dilemma and a modified N-person social dilemma.
- Participants' actions (cooperation/defection) and their expectations of others' behavior were manipulated.
- Reputational judgments (morality, competence) were assessed.
Main Results:
- In interdependent contexts (prisoner's dilemma), defectors expecting cooperation were seen as less moral, while cooperators expecting defection were seen as less competent.
- When outcomes were not interdependent, expectations did not moderate the effect of behavior on reputation.
- These patterns were replicated in an N-person social dilemma, supporting the inductive-reasoning hypothesis.
Conclusions:
- Stating expectations that align with one's own behavior can safeguard social reputation in interdependent situations.
- Inductive reasoning sufficiently explains social projection when outcomes are not interdependent.
- The findings underscore the nuanced interplay between behavior, expectations, and social perception in varying social contexts.
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