How Consistent Contributors Inspire Individuals to Cooperate: The Role of Moral Elevation and Social Value Orientation

Abstract

Achieving cooperation to address social dilemmas has long been a global problem. This study examined, using an environment-focused step-level public-goods-dilemma game, the effect a consistent contributor (CC) has on group cooperation, as well as the mediating role moral elevation and the moderating role social value orientation (SVO) play in this process. A total of 196 students were recruited and classified as “pro-selfs” or “pro-socials” based on their SVOs; individuals with the same SVO characterization were randomly allocated to groups of four, and then randomly assigned to the CC condition or the control condition to play 15 rounds of public-goods-dilemma games. In the CC condition, additional computer-controlled players represented the CCs. The results showed that the CC groups cooperated and earned more than the control groups did. Multi-level mediation analysis confirmed that moral elevation partially mediates the CC effect. Although the CCs had a direct impact on both pro-socials and pro-selfs, multi-level moderated-mediation analysis demonstrated that CCs influenced pro-socials directly, but affected pro-selfs’ decision-making indirectly, through moral elevation. This study contributes to a better understanding of sustainability of cooperation in social dilemmas by showing that consistent cooperative behaviors are contagious, and that their effects differ based on an individuals’ SVO.

Ripples in the pond: Evidence for contagious cooperative role modeling through moral elevation and calling in a small pre-study

“…First, we did not want the other two confederates to contribute so little that they became free riders, overshadowing the effect of the CC. Furthermore, previous similar studies discovered that people's expectations of others' cooperation rates in the first round were around 70%, as were their actual cooperation rates (Zhang et al, 2019). In line with this, the current study found an average cooperation rate of 69% in the first round.…”

“…Consequently, not contributing to the public account (i.e., selfish behavior) is typically considered a rational strategy in such a dilemma, while contributing to the public account (i.e., cooperative behavior) is thought highly by people. The existence of the CC effect has been confirmed in many variants of public goods games, such as all-or-none, continuous, and step-level public goods games (Weber and Murnighan, 2008;Gill et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2019). Several divergent accounts for explaining the CC effect have been proposed.…”

“…In the minority influence framework, researchers added that by consistently modeling cooperative behavior, minority individuals are able to challenge accepted norms of self-interest and transition them to cooperative norms (Grant and Patil, 2012). Other scientists have corroborated the mediating role of moral elevation-which is defined as an emotional experience of a warm and uplifting feeling experienced when individuals see unanticipated acts of kindness by other persons (Haidt, 2000), on the CC effect (Gill et al, 2013;Zhang et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2022).…”

“…To calculate the effect sizes, we obtained the following data from that study(Zhang et al, 2019): For the CC condition, n = 100, M = 6.63, SD = 2.64, and for the control condition, n = 96, M = 4.22, SD = 2.48. We were able to calculate Cohen's d = 0.94 with95%CI [0.645, 1.235].…”

Does similarity trigger cooperation? Dyadic effect of similarity in social value orientation and cognitive resources on cooperation

“…To clarify these controversial results, we tested the influence of SVO coherent in the context of prisoner’s dilemma. Based on the findings of Zhang et al ( 2019 ), which suggest that four-pro-social-member groups are more cooperative than four-pro-self groups in the 15-rounds public-goods dilemma, we proposed the first hypothesis: Hypothesis 1: Dyadic SVO composition significantly influences dyad-level cooperation. Specifically, similar-pro-social dyads are most likely to achieve mutual cooperation, less so in different-SVO dyads, and least so in similar-pro-self dyads.…”