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Experience with anonymous interactions reduces intuitive cooperation

Author

Listed:
  • William H. B. McAuliffe

    (University of Miami)

  • Daniel E. Forster

    (University of Miami
    US Army Research Laboratory)

  • Eric J. Pedersen

    (University of Miami
    University of Colorado Boulder)

  • Michael E. McCullough

    (University of Miami)

Abstract

The Social Heuristics Hypothesis claims that cooperation is intuitive because it is positively reinforced in everyday life, where behaviour typically has reputational consequences1,2. Consequently, participants will cooperate in anonymous laboratory settings unless they either reflect on the one-shot nature of the interaction or learn through experience with such settings that cooperation does not promote self-interest. Experiments reveal that cognitive-processing manipulations (which increase reliance on either intuition or deliberation) indeed affect cooperation3, but may also introduce confounds4,5. Here, we elide the interpretation issues created by between-subjects designs in showing that people are less cooperative over time in laboratory paradigms in which cooperation cannot promote self-interest, but are just as cooperative over time in paradigms that have the potential to promote self-interest. Contrary to previous findings6,7, we find that cooperation is equally intuitive for men and women: unilateral giving did not differ across gender at the first study session, and decreased equally for both genders across sessions.

Suggested Citation

  • William H. B. McAuliffe & Daniel E. Forster & Eric J. Pedersen & Michael E. McCullough, 2018. "Experience with anonymous interactions reduces intuitive cooperation," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(12), pages 909-914, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:2:y:2018:i:12:d:10.1038_s41562-018-0454-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0454-9
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    Cited by:

    1. Wu, Yu’e & Zhang, Zhipeng & Yang, Guoli & Liu, Haixin & Zhang, Qingfeng, 2022. "Evolution of cooperation driven by diversity on a double-layer square lattice," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Arechar, Antonio A. & Rand, David G., 2022. "Learning to be selfish? A large-scale longitudinal analysis of Dictator games played on Amazon Mechanical Turk," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Strømland, Eirik & Torsvik, Gaute, 2019. "Intuitive Prosociality: Heterogeneous Treatment Effects or False Positive?," OSF Preprints hrx2y, Center for Open Science.
    4. Amanda Rotella & Adam Maxwell Sparks & Sandeep Mishra & Pat Barclay, 2021. "No effect of ‘watching eyes’: An attempted replication and extension investigating individual differences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(10), pages 1-17, October.
    5. Umer, Hamza, 2020. "Revisiting generosity in the dictator game: Experimental evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

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