Cooperative Preferences Research Articles

Mothers, Fathers, and Others: Competition and Cooperation in the Aftermath of Conflict

We investigate the possibility that females and males had a distinct path in the evolution of prosociality and competitiveness. We collected experimental data measuring preferences for individual competition and in-group cooperation for a randomly selected sample of 751 individuals in Sierra Leone (aged 18-85) to contrast the behavioural consequences of victimization during the 1991-2003 civil war across gender and parental roles. Our data shows that conflict exposure, in general, tames competitive tendencies, but has the opposite effect for mothers. Victimization increases egalitarianism towards the in-group among non-parents, especially for non-parent males, who are the least egalitarian to start with. Our results imply that the behavioural consequences of conflict close sex and parental gaps in behavioural preferences. To the extent that group harmony may be enhanced by more equal in-group outcomes and more homogenous preferences, these results further lend credence to the idea that the behavioural effects of conflict prime individuals towards group survival. It also suggests that escaping perils and the harshness of resource constraints enables group differences in pro-social preferences (across genders and parental status) that may be detrimental to group harmony and group survival, a fate perhaps currently affecting societies with rising trends of inequality and polarization.

Evaluation of Transboundary Water Resource Development in Mekong River Basin: The Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Context of Water Cooperation

Mekong River is one of the major international freshwater sources in the world. The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) comprised of four downstream countries, including Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The utilization of the basin’s water brings not only substantial benefits to the region ranging from hydropower to navigation, but also negative impacts caused by the unbalanced water using. The essential role of Mekong River requires all member nations to cooperate effectively for the sustainable development of the region. One of the most popular methods in the field of water resource management is a trustable tool called the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP is much appropriate for water resource policymaking. The literature, however, points out that there is no study to both structure the water using hierarchy and employ quantitative (objective) criteria to the AHP model in LMB case. With regard to water resource management, there are no previous studies applying AHP models to evaluating sustainable development of transboundary water resource in LMB case. This paper explores the evolution of water cooperation among Mekong countries and subsequently evaluates the water development scenarios in the LMB based on the water cooperation preferences of four LMB countries This study proposes a novel approach to analyzing, assessing water resource development scenarios characterized by sustainability indicators and to assisting in developing a suitable water policy in LMB according to the best cooperation scenario.

Assessing the intensity of cooperation: a study of joint delegation of municipal functions to inter-municipal associations

ABSTRACT Talking is cheap, at least in the short term; elected officials may profess their preferences for IMC and yet deny IMA organisations the necessary resources to fulfil their missions. Driven by a focus on revealed preferences for inter-municipal cooperation, the article aims to answer two questions: Why do some IMA exhibit a high level of commitment on the part of their local government members whereas others remain underutilised, reflecting a choice by local governments to retain these responsibilities themselves? How does this commitment to IMAs vary over time? We use data from 25 IMAs over a 10-year period (2008–2018) in Portugal to assess the intensity of cooperation among Portuguese local governments through stand-alone organisations. The panel analysis regression supports the hypotheses that a larger number of local governments involved in IMAs and higher levels of heterogeneity among them make cooperation more difficult. In contrast, longer interaction in IMAs reinforces the intensity of cooperation.

From cooperation to competition: an interaction-based contingency theory of communities of practice

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework that explains the roles and viability of both cooperation and competition as they emerge in communities of practice. Although the usefulness of cooperation in communities of practice is well-understood, few studies have considered the role of internal competition, and those that have generally only explored cases in which antagonistic behavior led to the community’s collapse.Design/methodology/approachA contingency theory of communities of practice is developed based on the manifestations of members’ participation.FindingsThis theory demonstrates the root causes of fracturing and also provides a foundation for studying communities of practice that have previously defied explanation.Research limitations/implicationsThis manuscript explains the potential role and limitations of internal competition in communities of practice, as well as the emergence of subgroups based on differing preferences for cooperation and/or competition. Future research should examine the manifestation and ramifications of such individual differences between community members.Practical implicationsPractitioners can use this theoretical framework to assess communities of practice that they oversee, diagnose potential pitfalls and take corrective action to mitigate potentially toxic influences or inject additional motivating forces that would sustain the community.Originality/valueThis theoretical framework diverges from previous assumptions that internal competition is necessarily toxic for communities of practice, showing the value that it may offer in some contexts.

Gender and cooperative preferences

Abstract Evidence of gender differences in cooperation in social dilemmas is inconclusive. This paper experimentally elicits unconditional contributions, a contribution vector (cooperative preferences), and beliefs about the level of others’ contributions in variants of the public goods game. We show that existing inconclusive results can be understood when controlling for beliefs and underlying cooperative preferences. Robustness checks of our original data from Germany, based on data from six countries around the world, confirm our main empirical results: Women are significantly more often classified as conditionally cooperative than men, while men are more likely to be free riders. Beliefs play an important role in shaping unconditional contributions, supporting the view that these are more malleable or sensitive to subtle cues in women than in men.

Preferensi Koperasi Dalam Melakukan Konversi Menjadi Koperasi Syariah: Studi Kasus Pada Koperasi di Wilayah Bogor

This study aims to determine the most dominant factors affecting the cooperative preference in the conversion into a cooperative sharia. The research method using the quantitative approach to the technique of factor anaysis. The results indicate that regulatory support, promotion and profit sharing rate is the most dominant factor or a major factor for the preference of cooperative in the conversion into a cooperative sharia. Meanwhile religion, information, and image is a supporting factor for the preference of cooperatives in the conversion into a cooperative sharia.

Self-Conscious or Fear of Hurting Another's Feeling? An Experimental Investigation on Promise-Keeping.

We conducted an experimental investigation into whether the effect of non-binding verbal promises in enhancing cooperation among promisors is derived from the internalized norm mechanism or the expectation-based mechanism. We proposed a new experimental design based on the standard trust game to separate the two possible influence mechanisms of promises and assess the empirical support for these two mechanisms for the effect of promises. We also identified individuals’ cooperation preferences to further investigate whether the effect of promises and its underlying mechanism differ between individuals with different preferences. The results show that promises significantly improve promisors’ cooperation level, and this effect is only in line with the internalized norm mechanism rather than with the expectation-based mechanism. Additionally, the introduction of non-binding promises has different impacts on the behavior of selfish individuals and conditional cooperators, but both sets of the impacts can be interpreted as evidence for the internalized norm mechanism, while neither is supportive of the expectation-based mechanism. This paper provides empirical evidence consistent with the internalized norm mechanism for the effect of promises in promoting cooperation. There appears to be no support for the expectation-based mechanism.

The effects of COVID-19 lockdown on fairness and cooperation: Evidence from a lablike experiment

We run an experiment to study the effects of Covid-19 lockdown in Italy on preferences for fairness and cooperation. Given the impossibility of having participants in the lab during the lockdown, we adopted an online methodology based on a multi-platform architecture that brings experimental subjects in a “Lab on the Web”. Results from standard Ultimatum and linear Public Good games show that the circumstances in which participants lived the lockdown significantly affect their behavior in the two games. In particular, participants are more selfish in the ultimatum bargaining and contribute more to the public good when social isolation is stronger. However, cooperation decreases when lockdown is longer. We interpret these results as evidence of “social embeddedness” to compensate for “social distancing”.

Human social preferences cluster and spread in the field

While it is undeniable that the ability of humans to cooperate in large-scale societies is unique in animal life, it remains open how such a degree of prosociality is possible despite the risks of exploitation. Recent evidence suggests that social networks play a crucial role in the development of prosociality and large-scale cooperation by allowing cooperators to cluster; however, it is not well understood if and how this also applies to real-world social networks in the field. We study intrinsic social preferences alongside emerging friendship patterns in 57 freshly formed school classes (n = 1,217), using incentivized measures. We demonstrate the existence of cooperative clusters in society, examine their emergence, and expand the evidence from controlled experiments to real-world social networks. Our results suggest that being embedded in cooperative environments substantially enhances the social preferences of individuals, thus contributing to the formation of cooperative clusters. Partner choice, in contrast, only marginally contributes to their emergence. We conclude that cooperative preferences are contagious; social and cultural learning plays an important role in the development and evolution of cooperation.

A novel two-stage method for matching the technology suppliers and demanders based on prospect theory and evidence theory under intuitionistic fuzzy environment

Matching the technology suppliers and demanders in the market is essential because such a matching facilitates the technology commercialization. Under the intuitionistic fuzzy environment, this paper proposes a novel two-stage matching method to match the technology suppliers and demanders by fully considering the characteristics of the real matching process. In the first stage, following the prospect theory and evidence theory, the satisfactions of the two parties with the attributes’ performances are calculated. These satisfactions are further used as the basis for the ranking of cooperation preferences. In the second stage, the price satisfaction under the influence of the cooperation preferences is considered, and the final matching pairs are obtained by maximizing the price satisfaction. We also conduct a numerical example to show the application of the novel two-stage method and compare its performance with the single-stage method The results show that the two-stage method can better identify both sides’ cooperation intentions and enhance their transaction satisfactions.

RETRACTED: Empirical statistical analysis on the influencing factors of Co-opetition behavior of enterprises in logistics park

based on the theory of enterprise competition and cooperation, combined with the characteristics of the organizational structure of logistics park enterprises, based on the previous research on the factors of enterprise competition and cooperation in logistics park, this paper constructs a conceptual model of enterprise competition and cooperation influence factors in logistics park. Based on the internal influence factors of the enterprise and the external influence factors of the logistics park, four internal influence factors and three external influence factors are put forward, and the factors that affect the competition and cooperation of logistics park enterprises are analyzed by factor analysis method. The results show that the factors related to the survival of competing and cooperating enterprises in logistics parks such as enterprise cooperative preference, enterprise niche, structure and location of logistics parks have a high impact on the competition and cooperation of enterprises in logistics parks. Secondly, the motivation factors of competing and cooperating enterprises such as the pressure of enterprise competition, the speed of enterprise growth, and the environmental capacity affect the competition and cooperation of enterprises in logistics parks, and finally the impact of the punishment mechanism on the competition and cooperation of enterprises in logistics parks.

Oxytocin and vasopressin modulation of prisoner's dilemma strategies.

Background:The neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin have been repeatedly implicated in social decision making by enhancing social salience and, generally, cooperation. The iterated and sequential version of the prisoner’s dilemma (PD) game is a social dilemma paradigm eliciting strategies of cooperation versus competition.Aims:We aimed to characterise the role of PD players’ sex, game partner type (computer vs. human) and oxytocin or vasopressin inhalation on the player’s strategy preference.Methods:Participants (153 men; 151 women) were randomised to intranasal 24 IU oxytocin, 20 IU vasopressin or placebo, double-blind, and played the PD. We examined main and interactive effects of sex, drug and partner type on strategy preference.Results:We found a pervasive preference for a tit-for-tat strategy (i.e. general sensitivity to the partner’s choices) over unconditional cooperation, particularly when against a human rather than a computer partner. Oxytocin doubled this sensitivity in women (i.e. the preference for tit-for-tat over unconditional cooperation strategies) when playing against computers, which suggests a tendency to anthropomorphise them, and doubled women’s unconditional cooperation preference when playing against humans. Vasopressin doubled sensitivity to the partner’s previous choices (i.e. for tit-for-tat over unconditional cooperation) across sexes and partner types.Conclusions:These findings suggest that women may be more sensitive to oxytocin’s social effects of anthropomorphism of non-humans and of unconditional cooperation with humans, which may be consistent with evolutionary pressures for maternal care, and that vasopressin, irrespective of sex and partner type, may be generally sensitising humans to others’ behaviour.

Failure to replicate moral licensing and moral cleansing in an online experiment

Moral licensing occurs when someone who initially behaved morally or cooperatively, later behaves less morally, as if they had a “license” to act badly. On the flipside, moral cleansing occurs when someone first behaves immorally, which prompts them to later behaves more morally. To-date, few studies have investigated individual differences in the moral licensing and cleansing effects. This paper bridges this gap by investigating how cooperative preferences, as measured by social value orientation (SVO), influence engagement in these effects. We hypothesized that prosocial participants would be less likely to license, but more likely to cleanse. Contrary to predictions, we did not replicate the moral licensing or moral cleansing effects, and cooperative preferences did not influence engagement in the effect. However, checks suggest that our manipulations were successful. We postulate that licensing and cleansing effects are unlikely to be elicited online.

Choosing to cooperate: Modelling public goods games with team reasoning

This paper presents an agent-based model of team reasoning in a social dilemma game. Starting from the conundrum of empirically high levels of cooperation in dilemma games, contradicting traditional utility maximisation assumptions of game theory, Bacharach (1999, 2006) developed a theory of team reasoning. The idea behind team reasoning is that agents do not try to maximise their own utility but make choices as part of a team. This paper presents a model of preference convergence, mirroring adaptation dynamics of team reasoning. It describes an agent-based model simulating a repeated public goods game between a designated set of agents, a team. In the model agents have a probability to choose cooperation or defection, adjusting this preferences in the face of the revealed preferences of other players. The model is a classic binary choice model mapping an individual's preference for cooperation onto the binary behaviour choice of cooperation and defection. Preferences are updated in reaction to the behaviour choices of the team. Starting from simple stated preferences, the model implements a reframing of utility maximisation as applying to a group rather than an individual, modelling the importance of social interaction for individual preferences and the dependency of choice on social context. Results show that team reasoning, as implemented here, can explain high levels of cooperation found in the real world resulting from a wide range of settings. It also shows that team reasoning, as implemented here, is not a ‘sucker’ strategy except when adaptation rates are very slow. This paper demonstrates how agent-based models can be used to examine the role of social contexts for individual decision making.

Conditional cooperation: Type stability across games

To classify cooperation types, a sequential prisoner’s dilemma and a one-shot public goods game are convenient experimental setups. We explore the within subject stability of cooperation preferences in these two games. We find that the prisoner’s dilemma performs well in identifying conditional cooperators while it is only an imperfect tool for identifying selfish types in the public goods game.

Quality versus solidarity: Third Wave coffee and cooperative values among smallholding Maya farmers in Guatemala

ABSTRACT This article examines how a market shift toward high-end (‘Third Wave') coffee creates tension between two producer models of economic engagement: cooperatives, with mechanisms that promote solidarity to minimize risks, and ‘open’ markets, with extraordinary rewards for those able to grow the highest quality coffees. Most Maya farmers value cooperative organization and yet a growing number are defecting, unable to forgo the premiums intermediaries offer for their best beans. This is a complicated moral and economic situation in which the Third Wave focus on single-origin coffees forces changes in relations of production that undermine the cooperative preferences of smallholding farmers.

Group decision making based on hesitant fuzzy ranking of hesitant fuzzy preference relations

Hesitant fuzzy sets (HFSs) play a dominant role in the decision making process. Different tools are developed to attract the decision makers (DMs) in making the effective decision, the hesitant fuzzy preference relation (HFPR) is one of the important implementation of them. Preference of an alterna tive over another alternative is a useful way to express the opinion of decision maker. In this paper, a hesitant fuzzy ranking (HFR) technique is established, constructed the hesitant fuzzy ranking from the HFPR in the group decision making situations. Secondly, a correlation between the alternatives is developed by using Spearman ranked correlation coefficient formula, which helps the DMs to identify the better alternative. The novelty of the proposed strategy is that it evades the need to compute the cooperative preference relations and approvals are generated for the individuals in their original domains.

People prefer coordinated punishment in cooperative interactions.

Human groups can often maintain high levels of cooperation despite the threat of exploitation by individuals who reap the benefits of cooperation without contributing to its costs1-4. Prominent theoretical models suggest that cooperation is particularly likely to thrive if people join forces to curb free riding and punish their non-contributing peers in a coordinated fashion5. However, it is unclear whether and, if so, how people actually condition their punishment of peers on punishment behaviour by others. Here we provide direct evidence that many people prefer coordinated punishment. With two large-scale decision-making experiments (total n = 4,320), we create minimal and controlled conditions to examine preferences for conditional punishment and cleanly identify how the punishment decisions of individuals are impacted by the punishment behaviour by others. We find that the most frequent preference is to punish a peer only if another (third) individual does so as well. Coordinated punishment is particularly common among participants who shy away from initiating punishment. With an additional experiment we further show that preferences for conditional punishment are unrelated to well-studied preferences for conditional cooperation. Our results highlight the importance of conditional preferences in both positive and negative reciprocity, and they provide strong empirical support for theories that explain cooperation based on coordinated punishment.

Sectors, Pollution, and Trade: How Industrial Interests Shape Domestic Positions on Global Climate Agreements

Abstract It is usually assumed that the cost of abating pollution is the main deterrent of domestic support for international climate cooperation. In particular, some scholars have argued that, due to the burden of pollution abatement, businesses commonly constrain governments, which then take less cooperative positions on global climate agreements. I suggest that this argument needs further qualification: pollution-related costs rarely have unconditional effects on preferences for global climate agreements. Instead, a sector's pollution level is more likely to influence preferences for climate cooperation if mediated by its trade exposure. If pollution is high, firms in high-trade sectors may be less able to absorb climate regulation, and hence they should be more sensitive to climate cooperation. If pollution is low, firms in high-trade sectors may support climate cooperation, because by being more efficient they are more capable of adjusting to regulation. These dynamics should then affect governmental positions on global climate politics. I test my sectoral argument with original data from business statements and national communications at the United Nations climate negotiations. In line with my argument, I find that businesses in trade-open sectors are more likely to oppose climate agreement as their sector's emissions increase. I also find that in countries where high-emission sectors are open to trade, governments have low preferences for climate cooperation. The findings have implications for the domestic politics of environmental agreements and the distributive politics of global public good provision.

Cooperative sUAV Collision Avoidance Based on Satisficing Theory

The recent growth in small unmanned aerial vehicle (sUAV) applications in public and private sectors has generated a greater interest in effective collision avoidance strategies. This paper presents a cooperative collision avoidance approach for sUAV in the low-altitude uncontrolled airspace based on satisficing game theory. By incorporating both the self and cooperative preferences in making individual heading decision, satisficing framework provides a collision avoidance strategy that increases throughput while decreasing unnecessary collisions. A total of 4356 chokepoint scenarios are simulated with varying satisficing parameters, including number of sUAV agents, minimum separation, action angle, and dual utility parameters of raw preference and negotiation index. Simulation-based sensitivity analysis is conducted to find the combined effect of such parameters. The results show that performance of satisficing framework is dependent on traffic density primarily. Except for the very light traffic scenario, the minimum separation and degree of action angle affected the system efficiency the most, while dual utility parameters played crucial roles in highly conflicted scenarios. In conclusion, sUAV traffic and collision rules require an adaptive approach in regard to the traffic density, and satisficing framework can provide an effective collision avoidance strategy in a medium- to high-density traffic environment.