Attitude Similarity, Social Goals, and Cooperation

Abstract

Exceptions to the general rule that perceived attitude similarity is related to enhanced cooperation suggest that the subject's goals and the behavior of the other person are important constraints of the relationship. The present study categorized subjects according to their dominant social goal; 80% of 238 female subjects had predominantly individualistic or competitive social goals. Subjects made choices in a series of different decomposed prisoner's dilemma games, interacting with a conditionally cooperative accomplice who began with either a cooperative or a competitive first choice. The attitude similarity of the accomplice was manipulated at three levels: similar, neutral, and dissimilar. Similar accomplices received a significantly higher level of cooperation only when the subjects had individualistic goals and the accomplice's first choice was competitive. The discussion focuses on conditions which facilitate or suppress cooperative behavior in mixed-motive situations.