A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) questions long-standing beliefs about how people cooperate. Traditionally, behavioral scientists and economists have studied cooperation mainly through repeated interactions, where trust and reciprocal relationships can develop, allowing individuals to alter their behaviors based on others’ actions. However, many real-life situations, like volunteering or contributing to crisis relief, involve single decisions with no foreseeable future interactions. This new research, co-authored by Dr. Natalie Struwe and Prof. Esther Blanco from the University of Innsbruck alongside Prof. James Walker from Indiana University, investigated how people cooperate when they only have a single opportunity to work together in a social context without knowing the identities of the other group members.
Two Large-Scale Experiments
In two experiments with over 2,000 participants, the researchers adjusted the potential rewards from cooperating in public goods scenarios. Even though the potential benefits for cooperation increased, the findings revealed that individuals’ willingness to cooperate did not significantly change. This behavior seems to stem from the participants’ perceptions of others’ willingness to cooperate, which also did not fluctuate with increased benefits. Since participants did not anticipate that others would cooperate more as rewards increased, they were unlikely to also ramp up their cooperation, even when the benefits were significantly higher.
“Our results shed light on an important gap in our understanding of single-encounter cooperative behavior,” explained Dr. Natalie Struwe from the Department of Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck. “When making decisions to cooperate, individuals face what we term a social dilemma, where self-interested actions conflict with social interests. While one would expect higher cooperation rates with greater rewards, we were taken aback that increasing these benefits did not lead to more cooperative behavior. This implies that real-world scenarios, like donating during crises, might not be as influenced by the perceived advantages of cooperation as previously thought.”
Consistent Results Across Data Collections
“Initially, we were astonished by our findings and closely reviewed the data multiple times. We also repeated the study with various populations,” remarked Professor Esther Blanco from the Department of Public Finance at the University of Innsbruck. “Ultimately, we collected nearly 2,000 data points through online experiments with the general public from the UK and our students, both online and in laboratory settings. Despite numerous attempts, the cooperation levels stayed surprisingly stable. The general population showed no greater or less willingness to cooperate than our students, with participants on average willing to invest about 40% of their available funds to enhance their group’s outcomes, regardless of the context.”
“One-time spontaneous cooperation occurs more frequently than we often realize,” added Professor James Walker, another co-author from the Department of Economics at Indiana University. “For instance, when people unite for immediate disaster relief, they engage in one-time cooperation, choosing to act and contribute without knowing if they will meet the same individuals again.”
This study has critical implications for how we approach fostering cooperation in urgent, one-time situations such as emergency volunteering or disaster relief efforts. It also highlights the necessity for a better understanding of the core factors influencing cooperative behavior, a hallmark of humanity.
Key Findings:
- Individuals do not significantly alter their contributions to public goods with increasing cooperation benefits, unlike previous research in repeated interactions.
- Expectations regarding contributions from others significantly affect individual behavior in one-time situations and remain relatively unaffected by changes in cooperation benefits.
- Average cooperation levels were consistently around 40% across varied participant groups and experimental conditions, which included both the general public and university students.
- This study emphasizes the need for additional research on cooperation during one-time decision-making scenarios, focusing on how individuals interpret benefits and respond, as well as their expectations concerning others’ reactions.
The research paves the way for exploring effective methods to promote cooperation in critical, single-encounter situations and calls for a deeper examination of the psychological and social dynamics involved.
