Helping, Hurting, and Cooperating - Cooperation
4 important questions on Helping, Hurting, and Cooperating - Cooperation
Prisoner’s dilemma
Situation where outcome between two individuals depends upon each individuals’ independent choice to cooperate or not
Classic story of two prisoners who have to choose between sticking to their story or betraying their partner, without knowing what their partner will do
If they both cooperate, both win. If they both defect, both lose. But if one defects when the other cooperates, one wins big and the other loses big
Social and Cognitive Determinants of Cooperation
The most important determinant of whether people will cooperate are their construals about the people they’re interacting with
Social Determinants of Cooperation
Evidence from prisoner’s dilemma games:
People who are more competitive are more likely to assume that others are competitive
People become more competitive after being primed with words related to hostility
Greater competition when the prisoner’s dilemma was played in business context (for example, Wall Street) than when played as a “community game”
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Tit-for-tat strategy
A strategy in which the individual's first move is cooperative and thereafter the individual mimics the other person's behavior, whether cooperative or competitive.
Start by cooperating, and from that point on
do whatever the other person did last
>If the other person cooperates, then the cycle of cooperation continues and both benefit
>If the other person defects, then you continue to defect until the other person begins cooperating
This simple strategy is optimal because it encourages the benefits of cooperation, but doesn’t allow for exploitation
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