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Maintaining Cooperation through Vertical Communication of Trust when Removing Sanctions

Author

Listed:
  • Ann-Christin Posten

    (University of Limerick)

  • Pınar Uğurlar

    (Özyeğin University, Istanbul)

  • Sebastian Kube

    (University of Bonn)

  • Joris Lammers

    (University of Cologne)

Abstract

An effective way to foster cooperation is to monitor behaviour and sanction freeriding. Yet, previous studies have shown that cooperation quickly declines when sanctioning mechanisms are removed. We test if explicitly expressing trust in players’ capability to maintain cooperation after the removal of sanctions, i.e. vertical communication of trust, has the potential to alleviate this drop in compliance. Four incentivized public-goods experiments (N = 2423) find that the vertical communication of trust maintains cooperation upon the removal of centralized (Study 1), third-party (Study 2), and peer punishment (Study 3), and this effect extends beyond single interactions (Study 4). In all studies, vertical trust communication increases mutual trust among players, providing support to the idea that vertically communicating trust can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Extrapolating our findings to natural environments, they suggest that authorities should carefully consider how they communicate the lifting of rules and sanctions.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann-Christin Posten & Pınar Uğurlar & Sebastian Kube & Joris Lammers, 2024. "Maintaining Cooperation through Vertical Communication of Trust when Removing Sanctions," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 323, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:323
    as

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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cooperation; Vertical Trust; Punishment; Public Good; Experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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