Reciprocity in Ranked Relationships: Does Social Structure Influence Social Reasoning?

Laurence Fiddick () and Denise Cummins ()

Journal of Bioeconomics, 2001, vol. 3, issue 2, 149-170

Abstract: Many economic and evolutionary theories have modeled cooperation as the evolutionary outcome of decisions made by autonomous, self-interested agents operating in a social vacuum. In this paper we consider the implications for cooperative interactions when prior social structures and corresponding social norms exist. In particular we investigate the influence of social rank/status on perceptions of fairness and tolerance of cheating. We review evidence from a series of experiments employing the Wason selection task (a test of conditional reasoning) and the ledger task (a decision making task) suggesting that people cued to adopt a perspective of high social rank are more tolerant of cheating and simultaneously believe that they have been more fairly treated (even when cheated) than people cued to adopt a perspective of low social rank. However, the evidence also suggests interesting cross-cultural differences in perceptions of fairness and tolerance of cheating in ranked relationships. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001

Keywords: cooperation; cheater detection; cross-cultural differences; dominance theory; evolutionary psychology; hierarchy; norms; relative deprivation; social contract theory; status; Wason selection task (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbioec:v:3:y:2001:i:2:p:149-170

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DOI: 10.1023/A:1020572212265

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