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Dispositional free riders do not free ride on punishment
Till O Weber1,2,3, Ori Weisel4, Simon Gächter5,6,7
1School of Economics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, 4, Ireland. tilloweber@gmail.com.
Nature Communications
|June 21, 2018
Summary
This study reveals that dispositional conditional cooperators (DCC) and dispositional free riders (DFR) cooperate differently in public goods games. While DCC cooperate regardless of punishment, DFR only cooperate when punishment is present.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Game Theory
Background:
- Strong reciprocity, involving helping benefactors and punishing wrongdoers, explains prosocial cooperation.
- Theories of social preferences suggest self-regarding individuals cooperate and punish only when future benefits are sufficient, unlike strong reciprocators.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the prediction that self-regarding individuals cooperate and punish only for future benefits.
- To differentiate cooperation and punishment behaviors based on dispositional strong positive reciprocity.
Main Methods:
- Participants were classified as dispositional conditional cooperators (DCC) or dispositional free riders (DFR) based on their propensity for strong positive reciprocity.
- A two-stage design was employed, involving classification followed by a one-shot public goods game with and without a punishment option.
Main Results:
- Dispositional free riders (DFR) cooperated only when punishment was available.
- Dispositional conditional cooperators (DCC) cooperated irrespective of the presence of punishment.
- Crucially, dispositions towards strong positive reciprocity were found to be unrelated to strong negative reciprocity, with punishment behavior being nearly identical between DCC and DFR.
Conclusions:
- The findings indicate that the 'burden of cooperation' in public goods games is shared by a broader group than previously assumed.
- Cooperation is not solely driven by strong reciprocators; conditional cooperators and even free riders (under certain conditions) contribute to prosocial outcomes.
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