Reciprocity Outperforms Conformity to Promote Cooperation

Evolutionary psychologists have proposed two processes that could give rise to the pervasiveness of human cooperation observed among individuals who are not genetically related: reciprocity and conformity. We tested whether reciprocity outperformed conformity in promoting cooperation, especially whe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2017-10, Vol.28 (10), p.1490-1502
Main Authors: Romano, Angelo, Balliet, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Conformity
Cooperation
Cooperative Behavior
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Middle Aged
Psychological processes
Psychologists
Psychology
Reciprocity
Social Conformity
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Evolutionary psychologists have proposed two processes that could give rise to the pervasiveness of human cooperation observed among individuals who are not genetically related: reciprocity and conformity. We tested whether reciprocity outperformed conformity in promoting cooperation, especially when these psychological processes would promote a different cooperative or noncooperative response. To do so, across three studies, we observed participants' cooperation with a partner after learning (a) that their partner had behaved cooperatively (or not) on several previous trials and (b) that their group members had behaved cooperatively (or not) on several previous trials with that same partner. Although we found that people both reciprocate and conform, reciprocity has a stronger influence on cooperation. Moreover, we found that conformity can be partly explained by a concern about one's reputation—a finding that supports a reciprocity framework.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797617714828