共患难,更同盟:共同经历相同负性情绪事件促进合作行为

4项实验探讨了共同经历相同负性情绪事件,相比单独经历负性情绪事件,是否以及如何促进了个体间的合作。实验1~3分别采用抽奖任务和瑞文推理测验任务操纵负性情绪事件,采用公共物品博弈任务测量合作行为,结果表明,共同经历相同负性情绪事件,相比单独经历负性情绪事件,促进了个体间的合作行为。实验2通过测量归属需要、社会联结和内群体认同,实验3通过操纵归属需要,来考察共同经历相同负性情绪事件促进合作行为的潜在机制,结果表明,共同经历者之间的合作行为受归属需要的驱动,而社会联结和内群体认同不足以对该现象进行解释。实验4通过操纵个体共同经历“相同”和“不同”的负性情绪事件,进一步厘清了,促进个体间的合作是由于“共同经历相同的负性情绪事件”而非“共同经历负性情绪”造成的。研究结果有利于解释小群体的形成,对群体和社会管理亦具有借鉴意义。

Co-experiencing the same negative emotional events promotes cooperation

Cooperation plays an essential role in the development and survival of humans.Previous research suggests that experiencing negative emotional events typically decreases cooperation.Yet the research has primarily focused on experiencing negative emotional events alone.People living in a social environment often co-experience negative emotional events with others.Less understood is the impact of co-experiencing the same negative events on interpersonal cooperation.The present research hypothesized that 1)co-experiencing the same negative emotional events(i.e.,failure)increases cooperation between co-experiencers compared with experiencing negative emotional events alone;2)the need to belong mediates the relationship between those co-experiencing negative emotional events and their cooperation.Four experiments were conducted to examine the two hypotheses.In Experiments 1–3,the negative emotional events were manipulated either by failing in a lottery(Experiment 1)or in the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices(Experiment 2 and 3),and the cooperation was measured by a public goods game.The results of the three experiments showed that co-experiencing a negative emotional event promoted cooperation between the co-experiencers compared with experiencing the negative emotional event alone.Furthermore,to examine the underlying mechanism of this effect,three possible mediator variables,the need to belong,social bonds,and common in-group identity,were also measured in Experiment 2.The results showed that the need to belong,but not social bonds or common in-group identity,mediated the relationship between co-experiencing a negative emotional event(i.e.,failure)and the promoted cooperation.In Experiment 3,the need to belong was manipulated rather than measured to further examine its effect on the increased cooperation between the co-experiencers.The results showed that when the need to belong was satisfied,the participants who co-experienced the negative emotional event did not behave more cooperatively than when they experienced the emotional event alone.Experiment 4 investigated whether people would be more willing to cooperate when they co-experienced the same negative emotional events compared with when they experienced different negative emotional events or when they experienced the negative emotional events alone.The results showed that only the participants who co-experienced the same negative emotional event,but not those who co-experienced a different negative emotional event,were more likely to cooperate than when they experienced the emotional event alone.The implication of the present findings on the formation of small groups and enhancing group cohesion was discussed.