Individuals restrain resource use when they expect others to reciprocate, especially under scarcity

Evidence

Consistent with our theoretical expectations, we found that individuals who expected reciprocal restraint from other group members were more likely to exercise personal self-restraint themselves. This restraint was especially evident, moreover, under conditions of increasing resource scarcity. Thus, we showed (at least in the context of our laboratory simulation) that individuals are quite willing to do their part to preserve an endangered collective resource so long as they believe others in their group are willing to do so as well. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1952

Categorization

• XREF: Reciprocity-expectation as the cognitive micro-foundation of cooperative norms parallels Milgrom’s game-theory finding that repeated interaction enables cooperative equilibria — both root trust in expected reciprocation. — connects to: Gift economies spontaneously produce self-restraint that low prices cannot — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 107
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1952