Social Value Orientation Research Articles

Intuitive thinking impedes cooperation by decreasing cooperative expectations for pro-self but not for pro-social individuals

ABSTRACT This study conducted two experiments to explore the effects of intuitive thinking and social value orientation (SVO) on cooperative behavior and assess the mediating effect of cooperative expectations. It manipulated intuitive thinking by increasing the participants’ need for cognitive closure, classified SVO using the triple-dominance measure, measured cooperative behavior using the prisoner’s dilemma game, and considered cooperative expectations based on participants’ assessments of the cooperativeness of their counterparts. Both experiments showed that intuitive thinking increased and decreased the cooperation of pro-social and pro-self individuals, respectively. In pro-self individuals, cooperative expectations mediated the effect of intuitive thinking on cooperation.

The Interactive Effects of Social Value Orientation, Message Framing and Context on Helping Behavior

Helping at work, a form of organizational citizenship behavior, is highly positive for beneficiaries but it may come at a cost to helpers. In situations in which there is a conflict between what is best for oneself and the other, individual differences in social value orientation (SVO) – self-regarding versus other-regarding preferences – can influence cooperative choices. In this paper, we aim to explore under which conditions prosocial orientation is more or less likely to foster helping behavior. Building on the arousal:cost-reward model and self-discrepancy theory, we examine the moderating effects of help request framing and context on the relationship between SVO and helping behavior. In two studies using different approaches (a field experiment and a scenario-based experiment), we found convergent evidence that prosocial individuals are more likely to help than proselfs when it is more costly to do so. Similarly, prosocial individuals help more when requests are framed in terms of benevolence but not when they are framed in terms of exchange. These findings suggest that prosocial orientation fosters helping when it is more challenging to do so – that is, when help seekers do not have much to offer in return as well as in costly situations.

The Effect of Pay Transparency on Employee Integrity: Taking Social Mindfulness into Account

Extending prior research on the role of injustice perceptions and negative emotions in explaining the positive effect of pay transparency on pay-disadvantaged employees’ unethical behavior, we examine a more automatic process – (decreased) social mindfulness – as further explaining this effect. Two simulation-based experiments using gig-workers, high in psychological involvement and realism, supported the mediating role of social mindfulness. Specifically, Study 1, manipulating employees’ pay to be lower relative to that of virtual teammates, provided casual evidence for the positive indirect effect of pay transparency (vs. secrecy) on employees’ unethical behavior towards unrelated peers (i.e., not one of their teammates) through (lower) social mindfulness. Study 2, a pre-registered experiment also using gig-workers, replicated this indirect effect with respect to behavior targeted against both related- (individuals observably paid more) and unrelated-peers (i.e., no knowledge of their pay), and found that it persisted even when taking the negative emotions resulting from injustice perceptions into account. Interestingly, Study 2 also indicated that the negative impact of pay transparency on social mindfulness and subsequent unethical behavior, is significantly more pronounced among individuals with average and high (rather than low) social value orientation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Mach-IV: Evidence of Structural, Discriminant and Predictive Validity with Argentinian Students

Machiavellians are defined as self-interested and manipulative people, who use others as mere means for their ends. The Mach-IV scale consists of 20 items measuring different aspects of Machiavellianism. In this study, we investigate the psychometric properties of the Mach-IV Scale with Argentinian university students. First, we translated and adapted the Mach-IV Scale to the target culture. Second, we evaluated the structure and internal consistency of the scale. Third, we examined the correlation between Mach-IV and Social Value Orientation (SVO), and between the Mach-IV scale and decisions and expectations in a Dictator Game (DG), both in its “give” and “take” versions. None of the structures evaluated showed good indexes of fit. We opted for the original one-factor structure but without items 19 and 20. Assuming such a structure, we observed negative correlations between the Mach-IV scale and SVO, and between the Mach-IV scale and cooperation in the DG. Materials, data, and scripts are available at https://bit.ly/2In6fgI.

Truth-Telling in a Sender–Receiver Game: Social Value Orientation and Incentives

Previous research has discussed the effects of monetary incentives and prosociality on deceptive behavior. However, research has not comprehensively investigated the relationship between these two factors. In the current research, we introduce a repeated two-player sender–receiver binary choice task, where players in the role of senders or receivers receive asymmetric information regarding payoffs, offering the opportunity to explore the effects of economic incentives to lie according to the players’ prosociality. In Experiment 1, players are paired to play the game as a sender or receiver online. We find that economic incentives determine the likelihood of deception from senders and the likelihood that receivers will deviate from the received suggestions. Moreover, prosociality is related to players’ behavior: Prosocial senders send less deceptive messages and prosocial receivers choose options that benefit senders more. Furthermore, senders display consistent behavior when interacting with receivers, and they do not change their deceptive behavior even if detected by receivers. Experiment 2 further investigates how the players’ behavior corresponds to their understanding and interpretation of the other players’ actions, by pairing players with computer algorithms that display consistent probabilistic behaviors. We observe that senders deceive receiver algorithms by sending truthful messages when they expect the message not to be followed, and receivers follow the received messages by choosing the option that benefits “honest” sender algorithms. While we find a consistent result that prosocial senders send fewer deceptive messages than they should when telling the truth is costly, prosocial receivers are less considerate of sender payoffs in algorithms’ interaction.

Personality Difference and Strong-Strong Coalition—Experimental Research Based on Punishment Mechanism

Research on social value orientation divides rational people into three categories: individualist, pro-social, and competitor. This kind of research does not focus on network structure. Network exchange theory emphasizes that power comes from an exclusive structure, but it ignores the personality characteristics of people. This paper combines these two studies to explore how punishment mechanisms affect individual coalition strategies in an exclusive structure. The experimental results prove that: (1) when the strong is not in the coalition, there is no significant difference in the benefits of the strong power individualist person and the strong power pro-social person; (2) when two people with different social value orientations are strong-strong coalition, the two will form a “betrayal chain” whose benefit is close to the equilibrium value of the “compromise chain”. The strong power individualists are more likely to “betray” and “take advantage” more than the strong power pro-socialists; (3) the intensity of punishment is inversely related to the frequency of “betrayer”. Analysis of the dialogue data revealed that (4) the strong will properly take care of the weak, and the weak will “approach” the strong; (5) heavy punishment will have a deterrent effect, allowing the actors, especially pro-social to internalize the “punishment mechanism”. This study incorporates both personality and structure into the model, and such studies can explain many power phenomena.

An intelligent web-based spatial group decision support system to investigate the role of the opponents’ modeling in urban land use planning

Urban land-use planning decisions generally require negotiation between multiple stakeholders to reach an agreement on a specific plan. Computer-aided tools such as group decision support systems can facilitate the actors in this complicated process. In the context of these systems, using software agents enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of group decision support. The software agents can perform some computational and analytical tasks on behalf of the stakeholders. In more advanced cases, the agents can also learn stakeholders’ preferences and behavior to help them make good decisions. This paper proposes an intelligent web-based spatial group decision support system to investigate the role of opponents modeling in urban land use planning by using a multi-agent system approach. For this purpose, two successive meetings are held in which the system is used: in the first meeting, the stakeholders revise the existing plans and respond to other stakeholders’ requests. During the meeting, software agents attempt to model the behavior of the stakeholders they are associated with, based on a Bayesian learning method in combination with social value orientation theory to describe stakeholders’ decision behavior in a group context. In the second meeting, the software agents help the stakeholders in the step of plan revision by providing the information obtained to the stakeholders. In an application, a comparison of the results of the meetings showed that the provided information about the opponents reduced the negotiation time and contributed to reaching a better spatial configuration of land-uses based on a criterion provided by social value orientation theory.

Social value orientation and conditional cooperation in the online one-shot public goods game

We report two studies on the role of altruism and reciprocity in the online one-shot Public Goods Game (PGG). In study 1 we run an experiment to see whether the disposition to donate (altruistic/prosocial disposition according to the Social Value Orientation scale (SVO), Murphy et al., 2011) and the disposition to reciprocate (disposition to be a conditional cooperator measured with the strategy method (dCC), Fischbacher et al., 2012) explain contribution in the PGG. In study 2 we run a similar experiment where we add the manipulation of cognition by means of two treatments: time pressure (to induce less deliberative decisions) and motivated delay (to induce more deliberative decisions). Overall, we find that: (i) a higher SVO score goes with higher contributions; (ii) higher beliefs go with higher contributions; (iii) dCC does not appreciably account for contributions; (iv) conditional contributions elicited with the strategy method predict actual contribution for the stated belief; (v) while (i)–(iv) are unaffected by treatments, contributions under motivated delay are about 10% higher than under time pressure. Our experimental evidence suggests that altruism, beliefs and predicted contributions account for contributions regardless of the extent of deliberation, which however seems to impact positively and independently contributions.

Empathy and teachers’ fairness behavior: The mediating role of moral obligation and moderating role of social value orientation

This study examined the mediating effect of moral obligation and moderating effect of social value orientation on the relationship between empathy and fairness behavior in Chinese teachers. Seven hundred and twenty-six Chinese teachers completed self-reported questionnaires regarding empathy, moral obligation, social value orientation, and fairness behavior. The results revealed that moral obligation mediated the link between empathy and teachers’ fairness behavior. Teachers’ social value orientation moderated the associations between empathy and moral obligation and moral obligation and fairness behavior. The associations between empathy and moral obligation and moral obligation and fairness behavior were more robust for those with high SVO scores (i.e., prosocial). This study identified the critical factors associated with teachers’ fairness behavior, supplying empirical support for existing theories and providing practical implications for interventions designed to improve Chinese teachers’ classroom environment.

Revisiting Social Value Orientations and Environmental Attitude-Identity-Intention in Decomposed Games.

Past research has identified social value orientation (e.g., prosocial vs. proself) as possible underlying facilitators of pro-environmental intentions. However, recent studies have failed to draw a causal relationship using an experimental design such as priming. The current study attempted to address this issue by revisiting the relationship using a decomposed game. In addition, the current study extended the relationship between social value orientation and different aspects of pro-environmentalism (e.g., environmental attitude, identity, and self-reported pro-environmental intention). The “Attitude–Identity–Intention” path was explored in prosocial and proself groups. One hundred and fifty participants completed the decomposed game (prosocial and proself value orientations) and their respective environmental attitude, identity, and self-reported pro-environmental intentions (PEIs) were compared. We found that prosocial participants had higher levels of environmental identity, attitude, and self-reported participatory PEIs than proself participants, but not on the leadership PEIs. In addition, environmental identity mediated the relationship between environmental attitude and self-reported PEIs. This mediation only existed among the prosocial participants. The results suggest that the decomposed game is still a valid measure in social value orientation and the relationship can be extended to different aspects of environmentalism.

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

Although a considerable amount of research has demonstrated a robust relationship between social value orientation and cooperation, these studies may be limited by focusing solely on the individual. Building on the growing literature documenting the effect of group formation on cooperation and personality similarity on negotiation, the present study explored whether similarity in social value orientation (both being pro-social or pro-self) leads to more cooperation in social dilemmas among dyad members. Drawing from expectancy theory and the concept of cognitive resources, we further predicted that the relationship between similarity in social value orientation and cooperation uniquely depends on whether the individual is cognitively busy. To test our hypothesis, we grouped our participants according to their social value orientation into three different dyads (similar-pro-self, similar-pro-social, and pro-self-pro-social) to complete a repeated prisoner’s dilemma task, and controlled their cognitive resources using a simultaneous digit memory task. The results suggested that (1) heterogeneous dyads’ (pro-self-pro-social) cooperation possibility experience a steeper decay as the number of rounds increases compared with the two homogeneous dyads (similar-pro-self, similar-pro-social). In addition, (2) similarity in social value orientation, interacting with participants’ cognitive resources, significantly influenced individual-level cooperation. Specifically, both pro-selfs and pro-socials, paired with unlike-minded counterparts, were more cooperative when they had abundant cognitive resources. However, cognitive resources had no significant influence on dyads with similar social value orientation. Overall, these findings demonstrate the importance of considering personality configuration when attempting to understand cooperation in social dilemmas among dyads.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03276-8.

Relationships between Green Space Attendance, Perceived Crowdedness, Perceived Beauty and Prosocial Behavior in Time of Health Crisis.

An emergent body of evidence shows the impact of exposure to nature on prosocial attitudes and interpersonal relationships. This study examines relationships between green space (GS) attendance, perceived beauty of the space, perceived crowdedness of the space, and prosocial behavior. A cross-sectional study with snowball sampling was conducted in April 2020. All participants (N = 1206) responded to an online survey that included a French version of the social value orientation slider measure (used as a proxy for prosocial behavior), questions about the lockdown, and their GS attendance. After retaining only participants who had visited a GS at least once since the beginning of their lockdown (N = 610), multiple linear regressions showed that social orientation scores demonstrated associations with the interaction between GS attendance and perceived crowdedness of the GS, suggesting that attending low crowded GS is linked to increasing prosociality. These results provide insight into the roles that GS can have during a health crisis and suggest some practical implications.

The development of social value orientation: Attachment styles, number of siblings, age, and a comparison of measures

Nearly 25 years ago, four studies examined the development of social value orientation (SVO) and uncovered that SVO was related to specific and general adult attachment, the number of siblings, and age. However, some of these findings have been challenged by two recent replication studies. The present (pre-registered) research extends these replication studies and the original research by using multiple measurements of both SVO and adult attachment on two large samples that allowed us to detect small effect sizes. With online samples ( N = 1446 and 2644) from MTurk and Prolific, we replicated earlier findings that prosociality was associated with a greater level of secure attachment and a lower level of avoidant attachment. Moreover, prosociality was positively related to the number of siblings, especially sisters, as discovered by Study 3 of the original study. However, we failed to replicate the significant relation between SVO and age. Generally, we conclude that prosocial orientation is associated—even if modestly—with secure and avoidant attachment and the number of siblings, but the link with age is a question open to future investigation.

Fragile promise: The role of justification in promise‐breaking

People who consider themselves moral sometimes use self‐serving justifications to rationalize their selfish behaviours. Previous studies have tested the role of ambiguity in justifying wrongdoings, but it remains unclear whether ambiguity also plays a role in justifying promise‐breaking behaviour and whether heterogeneity exists. To investigate justification in promise‐breaking, we introduced a new experimental paradigm called the card‐guessing task and used hierarchical cluster analysis to classify participants based on their promise‐breaking decisions in unambiguous and ambiguous conditions. Experiment 1 revealed three clusters of solutions: Cluster 1 always kept their promises (i.e., keepers); Cluster 2 only exploited the vague promises and broke their promises in the ambiguous condition (i.e., intermediates); Cluster 3 tended to take advantage of vague promises and broke their promises irrespective of ambiguity (i.e., breakers). Experiment 2 confirmed that participants in the three clusters differed in their norm‐abiding preferences and social value orientations. Keepers were more altruistic and had a stronger sense of norm compliance than intermediates and breakers. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that self‐serving justifications were more likely to be employed by people who are moderately sensitive to deviation from social norms, which has implications for strategic interventions and policy formulation concerning unethical behaviour.

Competition and prosociality: A lab-in-the-field experiment in Ghana

Competitive bonuses are commonly used to promote higher productivity in the workplace. Yet, these types of incentives can have subsequent negative spillovers on coworkers’ prosocial behavior. We revisit this question in a lab-in-the-field experiment and examine whether competition negatively affects Social Value Orientation (prosocial attitudes) in addition to contributions to a public good (cooperative behavior). By considering the context of a developing country, we contribute to replicating previous findings in White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) samples. We find that when the payment dispersion between winners and losers is high, competition reduces both cooperation and prosocial attitudes compared to a threshold payment. Mainly winners cooperate less under competition. A comparison with a random payment scheme suggests that rivalry might partly explain the crowding-out effect in other-regarding preferences. Under low payment dispersion, competition does not affect cooperation or prosocial attitudes.

Research on the Impact Mechanism of product-identity link on Shared Consumption Misbehavior

In shared consumption, the anonymity of products, consumers do not have the legal ownership of shared products, and the "quasi-public product" attributes of shared products can easily induce misbehavior in shared consumption. Observation and research have found that product-identity link can affect the occurrence of misbehavior in shared consumption. After three experiments, this study found that: (1) product-identity link can effectively alleviate the occurrence of shared consumption misbehavior; (2) psychological ownership plays a role in the influence of product-identity link on shared consumption misbehavior Intermediary effect; (3) The moderating effect of social value orientation on psychological ownership affecting consumers' unethical behavior. The research conclusion not only has important theoretical significance for deepening product-identity link, shared consumption misbehavior, and psychological ownership, but also has important management enlightenment and practical significance for enterprises to alleviate shared consumption misbehavior.

Examining Consequentialist Punishment Motives in One-Shot Social Dilemmas

Abstract. We investigated whether consequentialist motives may underlie punishment decisions in single-round (i.e., one-shot) social dilemmas in which there is no prospect of reciprocity. In particular, we used an incentivized public goods game to examine how the prospect of receiving information on the effect of punishment (i.e., information that indicates potential regret and intention for future behavioral change on the part of the transgressor) affects people’s punishment decisions. We also took person-situation interactions into account and studied whether prosocial individuals (i.e., persons high in Honesty-Humility and Social Value Orientation) punish more strongly when they receive consequentialist information. The data did neither reveal the hypothesized effects of information availability on punishment decisions nor were these effects conditional on dispositional prosociality. We discuss potential limitations of these findings as well as open questions for future research.

Knowing me, knowing you: Interpersonal similarity improves predictive accuracy and reduces attributions of harmful intent

To benefit from social interactions, people need to predict how their social partners will behave. Such predictions arise through integrating prior expectations with evidence from observations, but where the priors come from and whether they influence the integration into beliefs about a social partner is not clear. Furthermore, this process can be affected by factors such as paranoia, in which the tendency to form biased impressions of others is common. Using a modified social value orientation (SVO) task in a large online sample (n = 697), we showed that participants used a Bayesian inference process to learn about partners, with priors that were based on their own preferences. Paranoia was associated with preferences for earning more than a partner and less flexible beliefs regarding a partner's social preferences. Alignment between the preferences of participants and their partners was associated with better predictions and with reduced attributions of harmful intent to partners. Together, our data and model expand upon theories of interpersonal relationships by demonstrating how dyadic similarity mechanistically influences social interaction by generating more accurate predictions and less threatening impressions.

Social engagement in coastal adaptation processes: Development and validation of the CoastADAPT scale

IntroductionEngaging citizens and communities is considered a central element and a good practice in coastal management. However, individuals still demonstrate a general disengagement with coastal risks. To understand the factors that underlie the citizens’ engagement in coastal risks processes and to implement evidence-based strategies aimed at enhancing public participation in coastal management, is pivotal to the success of coastal adaptation. GoalsTherefore, this study sought to develop and validate an assessment tool aiming at measuring individuals’ engagement in coastal adaptation processes and their underlying factors. MethodsA cross-sectional and 2-phase research was implemented to analyze the psychometric properties of the CoastADAPT scale. The Phase 1 study (N = 491) determined the CoastADAPT scale’s factorial structure, through Exploratory Factor Analysis; its reliability, through internal consistency and test-retest reliability; and construct validity, through convergent and divergent validity. The Phase 2 study (N = 207) confirmed the CoastADAPT scale’s factorial structure, through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. ResultsAnalyses indicated that the CoastADAPT scale showed good psychometric properties and a 3-factor structure consisting of the following domains: Experiential Processing (Affective component), Risk Awareness (Cognitive component) and Environmental Justice (Social value orientation component). ConclusionsThe CoastADAPT scale is a reliable and valid measure of citizens’ engagement in coastal risk adaptation processes. It may be a useful tool to facilitate the development of strategies to overcome individuals’ disengagement with coastal management and to provide a deeper understanding of the predictors of individuals’ engagement in coastal risk processes.

Social Value Orientation Moderated the Effect of Acute Stress on Individuals' Prosocial Behaviors.

Acute stress is believed to lead to prosocial behaviors via a “tend-and-befriend” pattern of stress response. However, the results of the effect of acute stress on prosocial behavior are inconsistent. The current study explores the moderating effect of gender and social value orientation on the relationship between acute stress and individuals’ pure prosocial behaviors (i.e., pure prosociality and prosocial third-party punishment). Specifically, eighty-one participants were selected and underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (or were in the control group), followed by the third-party punishment task and the dictator game. The results showed that, in general, the main effect of condition or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity on individual prosocial behaviors was significant and did not vary between genders. Furthermore, social value orientation (i.e., prosocial or self-orientation) might moderate the impact of RSA reactivity on the amount of punishment in the third-party punishment task. That is, individuals with self-orientation exhibited more prosocial third-party punishment as RSA reactivity decreased, while the effect did not occur for individuals with prosocial orientation. Taken together, the findings of the current study provide further evidence for the “tend-and-befriend” hypothesis and highlight the underlying physical mechanisms as well as the individual dependence of the effect of psychosocial stress on individuals’ pure prosocial behaviors.