Partner selection supported by opaque reputation promotes cooperative behavior
Journal Title: Judgment and Decision Making - Year 2016, Vol 11, Issue 6
Abstract
Reputation plays a major role in human societies, and it has been proposed as an explanation for the evolution of cooperation. While the majority of previous studies equates reputation with a transparent and complete history of players’ past decisions, reputations in real life are often ambiguous and opaque. Using web-based experiments, we explore the extent to which opaque reputation works in isolating defectors, with and without partner selection opportunities. We found that low reputation works as a signal of untrustworthiness, whereas medium or high reputations are not taken into account by subjects for orienting their choices. Reputation without partner selection does not promote cooperative behavior; that is, defectors do not turn into cooperators only for the sake of getting a positive reputation. Finally, in a third study, when reputation is pivotal to selection, then a substantial proportion of would-be-defectors turn into cooperators. Taken together, these results provide insights about the characteristics of reputation and about the way in which humans make use of it when selecting partners, and also when knowing that they will be selected.
Authors and Affiliations
Valerio Capraro, Francesca Giardini, Daniele Vilone and Mario Paolucci
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP678270
- DOI -
- Views 146
- Downloads 0
Goal center width, how to count sequences, and the gambler’s fallacy in goal penalty shootouts
Previous research has reported that the gambler’s fallacy could be detected in goalkeepers’ behavior during penalty shootouts. Following repeated kicks in the same direction, goalkeepers were more likely to dive in the o...
Effects of induced moods on economic choices
Emotions can shape decision processes by altering valuation signals, risk perception, and strategic orientation. Although multiple theories posit a role for affective processes in mediating the influence of frames on dec...
The nonsense math effect
Mathematics is a fundamental tool of research. Although potentially applicable in every discipline, the amount of training in mathematics that students typically receive varies greatly between different disciplines. In t...
The less-is-more effect: Predictions and tests
In inductive inference, a strong prediction is the less-is-more effect: Less information can lead to more accuracy. For the task of inferring which one of two objects has a higher value on a numerical criterion, there ex...
Numeracy, frequency, and Bayesian reasoning
Previous research has demonstrated that Bayesian reasoning performance is improved if uncertainty information is presented as natural frequencies rather than single-event probabilities. A questionnaire study of 342 colle...