Decision framing and group size shape cooperation in resource dilemmas

Evidence

Even within the context of our minimal laboratory-created social groups, our data provided some support for this notion (although the data revealed a more complex picture than we had theorized). In particular, we found that a variety of psychological and structural factors influence both people’s expectations about others’ cooperative behavior and their own subsequent cooperative behavior. These factors included such variables as the decision structure or “framing” of the choice dilemma (viz., whether it was a “give some” versus “take some” choice), the “size” of the group confronting the dilemma, and the level of salient “social categorization” among individuals (with differentiating social boundaries creating more competitive orientations compared to collectivizing boundaries). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1954

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘give some’ versus ‘take some’ framing effect — people cooperate differently depending on whether the dilemma is phrased as contributing to vs. withdrawing from a pool — is a nice finding to share with a colleague working on behavioral public policy or nudge design.