Further Attempts to Establish Differences Between People Who Cooperate and People Who Defect in Playing an Experimental Commons Dilemma Game.

摘要

Subjects playing a laboratory experimental game were also asked to fill out questionnaires assessing personality characteristics. The game required each subject in a group to make either a defecting choice that monetarily rewards the defector but fines the other members of the group, or a cooperating choice. The payoffs were arranged so that each person gains more by deciding to defect than to cooperate, but the group as a whole is better off if all members cooperate. The variables hypothesized to be associated with choice of cooperative or defecting response were: (i) an introspective statement that the game was approached in a cooperative or competitive manner, (ii) a belief that other people tend to approach the game in a cooperative or competitive manner, (iii) the Wiggins Authority Conflict Scale, (iv) the Machiavellian Scale and (v) a rating about belief in the ethical teachings of Jesus Christ. These findings are consistent with past findings that behavior in experimental gaming situations is not related to stable personality characteristics.