Dynamics of Cooperation Behaviors in Social Dilemmas

Professor Winton Au
The Department of Psychology
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Social dilemma is one domain of mixed-motive interactions that individuals are faced with the conflicts between maximizing individual gain and collective welfare. This presentation will focus on a public goods dilemma (one specific type of social dilemmas) in which individuals have to decide whether to contribute one's endowment to establish a public good that can be enjoyed by all. The dilemma is that once the public good is provided non-contributors cannot be excluded from consuming the good and hence it invites free-riding. Extending from the traditional paradigm that a fixed group of people are making cooperation decisions simultaneously, several studies will be presented to illustrate how cooperation may be affected by dynamics of each other's cooperation behavior in real-time. Specifically, we will look at the effect of (a) conformity when we arrange individuals to make decisions one by one, (b) goal-setting when we breakdown a contribution target into sub-goals and allow individuals to make contributions at their own pace, and (c) knowledge of other people's cooperation history when we allow people to choose their group members.