IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v115y2025ics2214804325000151.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Praise and cooperation: Investigating the effects of praise content and agency

Author

Listed:
  • Lv, Jieyu
  • Zhang, Hongchuan
  • Yu, Yonghong
  • Xue, Zhiyang
  • Cai, Yulin
  • Luo, Zixi

Abstract

How group members’ perceptions of each other’s actions influence cooperative behaviour over time remains uncertain. This study explored the effects of praise (praise content and agency) on cooperation in a two-player public goods game through one pilot experiment and three experiments. The results indicated that both process-focused and person-focused praise enhanced cooperative behaviours. Notably, participants exhibited higher levels of cooperation under process-focused praise compared to person-focused praise. Additionally, the act of expressing praise led to more cooperative behaviour than merely receiving praise or no praise at all. Overall, these findings underscore the efficacy of process-focused praise in promoting cooperation, with the expression of praise proving more effective than its reception. These insights suggest practical applications in organizational and educational settings, where implementing strategies that emphasize process-focused praise and encourage the active expression of appreciation could significantly enhance cooperative dynamics and team performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Lv, Jieyu & Zhang, Hongchuan & Yu, Yonghong & Xue, Zhiyang & Cai, Yulin & Luo, Zixi, 2025. "Praise and cooperation: Investigating the effects of praise content and agency," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:115:y:2025:i:c:s2214804325000151
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2025.102348
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804325000151
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2025.102348?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:115:y:2025:i:c:s2214804325000151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.