A Social Psychological Perspective on Punishment, Reward, and Reputation in Social Dilemmas

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Johannes Keller, since 6/2018
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 375260312

In social dilemma situations, individuals benefit from uncooperative behavior while exploiting resources of the collective. Three prominently discussed factors to solve social dilemmas are given attention in this proposal: punishment, reward, and reputation. In a nutshell, punishment of uncooperative individuals, reward of cooperative individuals and individuals' reputational concerns to appear prosocial in the eyes of others have been shown to increase cooperation in a substantial way. However, although research on punishment, reward, and reputation has produced a large number of articles in recent years, the analysis of basic cognitive processes that drive the prosocial effects of these factors have been neglected so far. In this regard, it is unclear whether the execution of punishment, reward, and reputational concerns are deeply rooted in humans so that they are executed intuitively; or whether they are the result of a reflective thinking process. These so far unanswered questions represent the central research questions in this proposal. Answers to these questions are important as they provide a valuable understanding about how cooperation evolves. Does intuition rather than reflection support factors that determine cooperative behavior - or vice versa? One main argument of this proposal is that both, intuition and reflection, play a part in the evolution of cooperation - thus going beyond current thinking emphasizing the prevalence of intuition in the evolution of cooperation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Stefan Pfattheicher, until 6/2018