Work

Avoidance of Risk as a Determinant of Cooperation

Year: 1971

Type: article

Abstract: Pairs of subjects could either cooperate or respond on a lower paying individual task. Whenever both subjects chose to cooperate, either subject could make a response that took $1.00 of the other's earnings. In Exp. I, a stimulus signalled when a "take" response had been made. Either subject could avoid the loss by switching to the individual task within 5 sec after the stimulus appeared. Rates of cooperation were high when losses could be avoided but decreased again when the avoidance condition was removed. In Exp. II, a response prevented "takes" from occurring for a specified time interval after the response. This procedure also maintained cooperation. When each avoidance response subtracted from earnings, both avoidance responding and cooperation were eliminated.

Source: Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

DOI: 10.1901/jeab.1971.16-367

Authors: David R. Schmitt, Gerald Marwell

Institutions: University of Wisconsin System, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Washington

Language: English

Topic: Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Subfield: Safety Research

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: National Science Foundation

OpenAlex ID: W1964097296

FWCI: 11.44

Cites: 5

Cited by: 26

Related to: 10