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Defectors cannot be detected during"small talk" with strangers
Joseph H Manson1, Matthew M Gervais1, Michelle A Kline1
1Department of Anthropology, and Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
Plos One
|December 21, 2013
Summary
Detecting cooperation in social dilemmas is challenging. Naïve observers accurately predicted decisions only for opposite-sex individuals, suggesting eavesdropping is more informative than direct interaction for assessing prosociality.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Human cooperation in one-shot social dilemmas is widespread.
- Theorists propose cooperators are detectable via hard-to-fake ethological displays.
- Previous research suggested "thin slices" of behavior distinguish cooperators from defectors, but cues remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the detectability of cooperation in one-shot social dilemmas.
- To identify specific behavioral cues signaling cooperative or deceptive intentions.
- To examine the influence of observer perspective (direct interaction vs. video observation) on accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Triadic conversations among unacquainted, same-sex college students.
- Unannounced dyadic one-shot prisoner's dilemmas (PD) were embedded within conversations.
- Participants and observers (video viewers, informed/naïve) guessed PD decisions.
Main Results:
- Only naïve video viewers achieved better-than-chance prediction accuracy.
- Naïve viewers accurately predicted PD decisions of opposite-sex, but not same-sex, conversation participants.
- Proposed "greenbeard" signals (e.g., arms crossed, face touch) did not predict defection or guesses of defection.
Conclusions:
- The study casts doubt on the role of specific "greenbeard" signals in human prosociality.
- Eavesdropping on conversations appears more informative about cooperative propensities than direct interaction.
- Observer perspective significantly impacts the ability to detect cooperation in social dilemmas.
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