Social dilemmas: When self-control benefits cooperation

Peter Martinsson, Kristian Ove R. Myrseth and Conny Wollbrant

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2014, vol. 45, issue C, 213-236

Abstract: Individuals in a social dilemma may experience a self-control conflict between urges to act selfishly and their better judgment to cooperate. Pairing a public goods game with a subtle framing technique, we test whether perception of self-control conflict strengthens the association between self-control and cooperation. Consistent with our hypothesis, cooperative behavior is positively associated with self-control in the treatment that raised the relative likelihood of perceiving conflict, but not associated with self-control in the treatment that lowered the likelihood. These results indicate that it is important to understand the role of self-control in cooperation.

Keywords: Cooperation; Self-control; Pro-social behavior; Public good experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D03 D64 D70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:45:y:2014:i:c:p:213-236

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2014.09.004

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