This study investigates how agreeableness and productivity uncertainty influence cooperation in social dilemmas. Productivity uncertainty refers to not knowing how much one’s cooperation will...Show moreThis study investigates how agreeableness and productivity uncertainty influence cooperation in social dilemmas. Productivity uncertainty refers to not knowing how much one’s cooperation will benefit the collective, a characteristic of many real-life social dilemmas like climate change. The uncertainty about whether cooperation will be productive, unproductive, or counterproductive might decrease people’s contributions to the public good. Previous research demonstrates that agreeableness is linked to the willingness to cooperate. It is argued that the negative impact of productivity uncertainty on cooperation is lower for people high rather than low on agreeableness. Despite significant main effects of agreeableness and productivity uncertainty on contributions to the public good, the findings of this experiment show that the degree of agreeableness does not explain the impact of productivity uncertainty on cooperation. However, the study provides several explanations and suggests directions for future research to better understand the influence of agreeableness and productivity uncertainty on cooperation.Show less
The current study focuses on the relationship between agreeableness and conflict tactics in intergroup conflict. Intergroup conflict arises when multiple groups have incompatible needs. Individuals...Show moreThe current study focuses on the relationship between agreeableness and conflict tactics in intergroup conflict. Intergroup conflict arises when multiple groups have incompatible needs. Individuals can invest in intergroup conflict at their own cost through conflict tactics such as ingroup bias or outgroup harm. The trait agreeableness may be an important predictor in the choice for conflict tactics. I hypothesized that agreeableness was positively associated with ingroup bias and negatively associated with outgroup harm. This study operationalized intergroup conflict with the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma Maximizing-Differences (IPD-MD) (N = 126). The results supported the first hypothesis that indeed, highly agreeable people show more ingroup bias in intergroup conflict than their less agreeable counterparts. However, the second hypothesis was not supported by our results, as no relationship was found between agreeableness and outgroup harm. Finally, this study includes several theories to explain these results, as well as directions for future research.Show less
