Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 1, 2026
11:13
The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Global social identity and global cooperation
Nancy R Buchan1, Marilynn B Brewer, Gianluca Grimalda
1Sonoco International Business Department, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, 29208, USA. roland.nancy.buchan@moore.sc.edu
Psychological Science
|May 19, 2011
Summary
Social identity psychology can drive global cooperation. Identifying with the world community motivates people to contribute to global public goods, even beyond self-interest.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Global Cooperation Studies
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Understanding factors that motivate cooperation in large-scale collective action is crucial.
- Previous research has primarily focused on national or local group identities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if social identity psychology can motivate cooperation within a global collective.
- To determine if identification with the world community influences contributions to global public goods.
Main Methods:
- Multinational study involving choice behavior in a multilevel public-goods dilemma.
- Data collected from general populations in the United States, Italy, Russia, Argentina, South Africa, and Iran.
Main Results:
- Inclusive social identification with the world community is a significant psychological construct.
- Global social identification predicts behavioral contributions to global public goods, independent of expectations of others' contributions.
- Global social identification is distinct from general attitudes toward global issues and uniquely impacts cooperative behavior.
Conclusions:
- A sense of global social identity can effectively motivate cooperation that surpasses local or national interests.
- Psychological identification with the global community is a key predictor of pro-social behavior on a worldwide scale.
- Future interventions aimed at fostering global cooperation should consider strengthening global social identity.
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