Team reasoning and group identification

Abstract

The team reasoning approach explains cooperation in terms of group identification, which in turn is explicated in terms of agency transformation and payoff transformation. Empirical research in social psychology is consistent with the significance of agency and payoff transformation. However, it also reveals that group identification depends on social categorization processes to a greater extent than is currently acknowledged within the team reasoning approach. In light of this, Bacharach’s claim that group identification is prompted by a perceived conflict between individual and collective interests has to be rejected. Instead, it is triggered by the salience of a social category. Sugden’s account of the role of trust in team reasoning needs to be modified: rather than by evidence of behavior, it is induced by common knowledge of shared membership of a particular group. The upshot is that the empirical adequacy of the team reasoning approach can be substantially enhanced by incorporating the notion of category salience as a key explanatory variable.