Nation-specific social preferences and their relation to cross-national cooperation

• Applicants: Professorin Angela Dorrough; Professor Dr. Andreas Glöckner
• Subject Area: Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491154596

Important societal challenges, such as climate change or fighting pandemics, can only be solved on a global level and, therefore, require cooperation of individuals from various nations. Human cooperation behavior is largely driven by social preferences – the extent to which individuals consider not only their own outcomes (e.g., well-being, monetary outcomes) but also those of other individuals. Whereas a small number of studies on differences concerning the levels of social preferences within and between countries exist, relatively little is known concerning nation-specific social preferences. Specifically, the question of whether the nationality of the interaction partner determines social preferences has been studied only recently. This project is directed at gaining more insights into cross-national cooperation by assessing nation-specific social preferences and relating them to lab- as well as real-world cooperation between nations. Nation-specific social preferences refer to social preferences people hold for interaction partners from specific other nations. The conception of nation-specific social preferences stands in contrast with a null model assuming that individuals have relatively stable social preferences that they apply equally for all other persons. We present preliminary work showing that nation-specific social preferences exist, vary considerably between nations, and are highly predictive of cross-national cooperation behavior. We aim to extend this preliminary work by measuring nation-specific social preferences in a broad set of 40 nations using population representative samples (concerning age and gender). We plan to investigate possible determinants of nation-specific social preferences and develop an alternative model of nation-specific social preferences. Furthermore, we will examine the association between nation-specific social preferences and real-world instances of cross-national (political and economic) cooperation. Specifically, we will assess whether nation-specific social preferences can predict current instances of cross-national cooperation (i.e., voting concordances, trade relations) and non-cooperation (i.e., political conflicts). Finally, the detected facilitators of and obstacles to cross-national cooperation will be validated in an experimental cooperation situation. Specifically, we will identify effective and ineffective nation combinations with respect to successful cooperation in a climate game.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants