Positive interactions may decrease cooperation in social dilemma experiments.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Social Psychology
• Game Theory

Background:

• Social dilemmas, like the public goods problem, present a conflict between individual self-interest and collective benefit.
• Cooperation is prevalent in human societies despite individual incentives to defect.
• Mechanisms to promote cooperation are actively researched, with spillover effects from different environments being under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how positive cooperative experiences influence cooperation levels in subsequent social dilemma interactions.
• To understand the impact of high-return cooperative environments on behavior in public goods games.

Main Methods:

• A laboratory experiment using repeated public goods games (PGGs).
• Participants engaged in alternating rounds of positive interaction and social dilemma interaction.
• Analysis focused on the effect of positive interaction rounds on cooperation in the subsequent social dilemma rounds.

Main Results:

• Contrary to expectations, positive cooperative experiences led to a decrease in cooperation during social dilemma interactions.
• Participants' perception of contributing to social dilemmas shifted negatively after high-return positive interactions.
• The high returns in positive interactions served as a reference point, making social dilemma contributions seem like a poor investment.

Conclusions:

• Experiencing highly rewarding cooperation does not necessarily foster more cooperation in subsequent, less rewarding social dilemmas.
• The framing of interactions and resulting reference points significantly impact cooperative decision-making.
• Future research should consider the psychological impact of reference points when designing interventions for cooperation.