Abstract
This paper deals with the topic of cooperation among economic agents in a repeated game with unknown length. There is still little empirical evidence why and under which conditions people cooperate at all in situations such as the prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG). There is extensive literature on the theory of infinitely repeated games and also a large number of explanations for cooperative behaviour. Experimental evidence on the question how future features will affect the behaviour is rare and the classification of the participants into social and selfish oriented types is new in this context.
Modern contract theory deals a lot with the willingness to cooperate. Therefore we raise the question under which conditions cooperation is created in special economic situations (for example in energy contracts).
The present study examines the influence of pre-existing individual differences in social value orientations measured by the outcomes to oneself and others according to the ring measure by McClintock [10]. We run an experiment in the lab and we are able to figure out the high percentage at cooperation in a PDG in which the number of future rounds is unknown and the fact that cooperation is significantly dependent on the type of the subjects’ social value orientation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
P. Dal Bo. Cooperation under the shadow of the future: Experimental evidence from infinitely repeated games. American Economic Review, 95(5):1591–1604, December 2005. Available at http://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v95y2005i5p1591-1604.html.
D. W. Griesinger and J. W. Livingston. Toward a model of interpersonal motivation in experimental games. Behavioral Science, 18:173–188, 1973.
H. H. Kelley and J. Thibaut. Interpersonal relations: A theory of interdependence. Wiley, New York, 1978.
G. P. Knight and A. F. Dubro. Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic social values: An individualized regression and clustering approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(1):98–105, 1984. Available at http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=9697715.
D. M. Kuhlmann and A. F. J. Marshello. Individual differences in game motivation as moderators of preprogrammed strategy effects in prisoner’s dilemma. Journal of Personality and of Social Psychology, 32:922–931, 1975.
W. Liebrand, H. Wilke, V. R., and W. F.J.M. Value orientation and conformity. A study using three types of social dilemma games. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 30(1):77–97, 1986.
W. G. B. Liebrand and G. van Run. The effects of social motives on behavior in social dilemmas in two cultures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21:86–102, 1985.
C. McClintock and E. van Avermaet. Social values and rules of fairness: A theoretical perspective. In V. J. Derlaga and J. Grzelaj, editors, Cooperation and Helping Behavior. Theories and Research:43–71. Academic Press, New York, 1982.
C. G. McClintock. Social motivation — a set of propositions. Behavioral Science, 17:438–454, 1972.
C. G. McClintock. Social values: Their definition, measurement and development. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 12:121–137, 1978.
M. Olekalns and P. L. Smith. Social value orientations and strategy choices in competitive negotiations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(6):657–668, 1999. Available at http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/25/6/657.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Feyer, R., Leopold-Wildburger, U., Pickl, S. (2008). The Influence of Social Values in Cooperation. In: Kalcsics, J., Nickel, S. (eds) Operations Research Proceedings 2007. Operations Research Proceedings, vol 2007. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77903-2_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77903-2_32
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77902-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-77903-2
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)