Cooperation in a Risky Environment: Decisions from Experience in a Stochastic Social Dilemma

Florian Artinger, Nadine Fleischhut (), Maria Levati and Jeffrey R. Stevens ()
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Nadine Fleischhut: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin
Jeffrey R. Stevens: Department of Psychology, Nebraska

No 2012-047, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: Often in cooperative situations, many aspects of the decision-making environment are uncertain. We investigate how cooperation is shaped by the way information about risk is presented (from description or from experience) and by differences in risky environments. Drawing on research from risky choice, we compare choices in stochastic social dilemmas to those in lotteries with equivalent levels of risk. Cooperation rates in games vary with different levels of risk across decision situations with the same expected outcomes, thereby mimicking behavior in lotteries. Risk presentation, however, only affected choices in lotteries, not in stochastic games. Process data suggests that people respond less to probabilities in the stochastic social dilemmas than in the lotteries. The findings highlight how an uncertain environment shapes cooperation and call for models of the underlying decision processes.

Keywords: Decisions from Experience; Social Dilemma; Cooperation; Risky Choice; Public Good. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C73 C92 D81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-08-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-gth and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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