Leiden University Student Repository

Lindhout, Isa (2020)

De Publieke Vraag als Coördinatiepunt voor Coöperatiebeslissingen: De rol van sociale waardeoriëntatie en omgevingsonzekerheid

Bachelor thesis | Psychologie (BSc)

Most collaborative situations are characterized by a ‘public demand’ of personal sacrifices to serve the collective needs, where there is often a choice to be made to either serve your personal needs or the collective needs. In this study it will be investigated if the public demand can drive people to coordinate their cooperation decisions and how this will be influenced by the environment uncertainty and social value orientation. This will be tested in one experiment with three different conditions: a public goods game without a public demand, a public account game with a certain public demand and a public account game with an uncertain public demand. In those three conditions the participants have to decide how much they will contribute to the collective account. Although we expected the public demand to be a coordination point for cooperation decisions, where people would use a rule of equity, this is not in line with what was found in the results. In situations with a public...Show moreMost collaborative situations are characterized by a ‘public demand’ of personal sacrifices to serve the collective needs, where there is often a choice to be made to either serve your personal needs or the collective needs. In this study it will be investigated if the public demand can drive people to coordinate their cooperation decisions and how this will be influenced by the environment uncertainty and social value orientation. This will be tested in one experiment with three different conditions: a public goods game without a public demand, a public account game with a certain public demand and a public account game with an uncertain public demand. In those three conditions the participants have to decide how much they will contribute to the collective account. Although we expected the public demand to be a coordination point for cooperation decisions, where people would use a rule of equity, this is not in line with what was found in the results. In situations with a public demand people do not act in line with their social value orientation, but which principle participants did use to coordinate the cooperation decisions hasn’t been found in this study. Environmental uncertainty also seems to be irrelevant in the process of making cooperation decisions, which was against our expectations as well. The social value orientation does seem to have an influence. Pro-socials cooperate more than pro-selfs do, especially in situations with a certain public demand. In situations with an uncertain public demand the gap in cooperation between pro-socials and pro-selfs narrowed.Show less

public goods game

public account game

public demand

cooperation decisions

social value orientation

environmental uncertainty

Author

Lindhout, Isa

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Supervisors

Molenmaker, W.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

nl