Justifying decisions in social dilemmas: justification pressures and tacit coordination under environmental uncertainty

This article investigates how justification pressures influence harvesting decisions in common resource dilemmas. The authors argue that when a division rule prescribes a specific harvest level, such as under environmental certainty, people adhere more strongly to this division rule when they have to justify their decisions to fellow group members. When a division rule does not prescribe a specific harvest level, such as under environmental uncertainty, people restrict their harvests when they have to justify their decisions to fellow group members. The results of two experimental studies corroborate this line of reasoning. The findings are discussed in terms of tacit coordination. The authors specify conditions under which justification pressures may or may not facilitate efficient coordination.     

Cultural, social, and emotional determinants of decisions under uncertainty

Two experiments examined the factors that influence Chinese and United States college students’ decisions in both a simulated investment situation and an academic situation. Participants in each experiment were confronted with a choice between (a) an alternative that could have either a very positive outcome or a very negative one and (b) an alternative that was relatively safe. The decision that others had typically made in the situation was also indicated. Participants’ decisions in both experiments were mediated by the emotional reactions they experienced in response to alternative decision outcomes. Others’ decisions had a direct impact on decisions in the investment situation, but their impact in the academic situation was mediated by their influence on participants’ anticipated emotional reactions. Cultural differences in the impact of anticipated feelings and others’ decisions were not evident in the investment situation. However, they were apparent in the academic situation, which was more similar to ones that participants were likely to encounter in daily life.     

Public good provision in inter‐team conflicts: Effects of asymmetry and profit‐sharing rule

A fundamental problem in organizations is designing mechanisms for eliciting voluntary contributions from individual members of a team who are entrapped in a social dilemma. To solve the problem, we utilize a game‐theoretical framework that embeds the traditional within‐team social dilemma in a between‐team competition for an exogenously determined prize. In equilibrium, such competition enhances the incentive to contribute, thereby reducing free‐riding. Extending existing literature, we focus on asymmetric competitions between teams of unequal size, and competitions between more than two teams. Comparing two protocols for sharing the prize—egalitarian and proportional profit‐sharing rules—we find that (i) free‐riding diminishes and (ii) team members contribute more toward their team's effort when they belong to the larger team and when the profit‐sharing rule is proportional. (iii) Additionally, under the egalitarian profit‐sharing rule team members contribute more than predicted by the equilibrium solution. We discuss implications of our findings for eliciting contributions in competitive environments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preferences for leadership in social dilemmas: Public good dilemmas versus common resource dilemmas

It has been argued that a structural solution to social dilemmas is to install a leader, but here we consider the possibility that group members will oppose giving up their decisional freedom. Previous studies have shown that feedback indicating collective failure results in a stronger preference for the leadership option. We argue that preferences for the leadership option depend not only on the feedback group members receive, but also on the type of dilemma they are facing. The results of our experiment, in which we manipulated dilemma type as well as feedback, corroborate our reasoning. The distribution of initial property in public good and common resource dilemmas helps to explain these findings.     

Gender effects on social support provision and receipt

This study was conducted to examine the influence of gender on social support provision and receipt using both self-report and observational methodologies. In response to another person sharing a problem, we predicted that men would be more likely than women to provide advice, and women would be more likely than men to provide emotional support. We also predicted women would be more likely than men to receive emotional support, and men would be more likely than women to receive negative support. Sixty-one pairs of college students, same-sex and mixed-sex dyads, shared a problem with each other. Problem-sharing transactions were audiotaped and transcribed for content analysis. Opposite-sex providers offered more emotional support than did same-sex providers, whereas same-sex providers listened more than did opposite-sex providers. No gender differences were found for advice-giving. Men were more likely than women to receive negative support. These results suggest that gender composition of the dyad has a greater influence on support provision and receipt than provider or recipient gender alone.     

Facial display of environmental policy uncertainty

Although much attention has been given to research reflecting the issue of human perception, a limited number of studies have utilized the human face as a mechanism for displaying perceptual data. This article illustrates the use of computer-generated cartoon faces as a method of portraying that data. It also demonstrates the use of this method in detecting perceptions among market drivers toward environmental protection policies. Guided by the Chernoff Faces, data from market drivers are mapped into cartoon faces which reflect perceptual expressions of the policies.The author is grateful to Dr. Morris Wilhelm, Dr. James Bowden, and Dr. James Clevenger for their constructive criticism and support and to the anonymous reviewers of theJournal of Business and Psychology for their very incisive comments.     

Resource dilemmas with environmental uncertainty and asymmetric players

Groups of subjects participated in a series of 30 noncooperative independent single-trial resource dilemmas. On each trial the subjects in each group requested privately a number of points from a common pool. Individual requests were granted if and only if the total group request was equal to or smaller than the pool size. The pool size on each trial was sampled randomly from a uniform distribution that was common knowledge. Asymmetry in payoff was induced by assigning to each group member a different points-to-money exchange rate. The results show that as the uncertainty about the pool size increases subjects (1) overestimate the pool size, (2) increase their requests, and (3) expect others to increase their requests. In addition (4) individual requests and expectations regarding others' requests are inversely related to the exchange rates, reflecting attempts to equate payoffs across group members.     

Culture and social support provision: who gives what and why

The present research examined cultural differences in the type and frequency of support provided as well as the motivations underlying these behaviors. Study 1, an open-ended survey, asked participants about their social interactions in the past 24 hours and found that European Americans reported providing emotion-focused support more frequently than problem-focused support, whereas Japanese exhibited the opposite pattern. Study 2, a closed-ended questionnaire study, found that, in response to the close other's big stressor, European Americans provided more emotion-focused support whereas Japanese provided equivalent amounts of emotion-focused and problem-focused support. In addition, Study 2 examined motivational explanations for these differences. Social support provision was motivated by the goal of closeness and increasing recipient self-esteem among European Americans, but only associated with the motive for closeness among Japanese. These studies illustrate the importance of considering cultural context and its role in determining the meaning and function of various support behaviors.     

Path planning under spatial uncertainty

In this article, we present experiments studying path planning under spatial uncertainties. In the main experiment, the participants' task was to navigate the shortest possible path to find an object hidden in one of four places and to bring it to the final destination. The probability of finding the object (probability matrix) was different for each of the four places and varied between conditions. Givensuch uncertainties about the object's location, planning a single path is not sufficient. Participants had to generate multiple consecutive plans (metaplans)--for example: If the object is found in A, proceed to the destination; if the object is not found, proceed to B; and so on. The optimal solution depends on the specific probability matrix. In each condition, participants learned a different probability matrix and were then asked to report the optimal metaplan. Results demonstrate effective integration of the probabilistic information about the object's location during planning. We present a hierarchical planning scheme that could account for participants' behavior, as well as for systematic errors and differences between conditions.     

Coherent choice functions under uncertainty

We discuss several features of coherent choice functions—where the admissible options in a decision problem are exactly those that maximize expected utility for some probability/utility pair in fixed set S of probability/utility pairs. In this paper we consider, primarily, normal form decision problems under uncertainty—where only the probability component of S is indeterminate and utility for two privileged outcomes is determinate. Coherent choice distinguishes between each pair of sets of probabilities regardless the “shape” or “connectedness” of the sets of probabilities. We axiomatize the theory of choice functions and show these axioms are necessary for coherence. The axioms are sufficient for coherence using a set of probability/almost-state-independent utility pairs. We give sufficient conditions when a choice function satisfying our axioms is represented by a set of probability/state-independent utility pairs with a common utility.     

Pseudodiagnosticity in judgment under uncertainty

The study investigates the extent to which the false alarm (i.e., ) is utilized in judgment under uncertainty. The main findings are (1) this cue is utilized by subjects when provided with a numerically low base-rate (i.e., P(H)) and a high hit-rate (i.e., P(D/H)). Under these conditions the false alarm helps resolve the inconsistency between the implications of these probabilistic cues. (2) The false alarm is ignored by subjects when provided with a numerically high base-rate and a high hit-rate. Under these conditions both latter probabilities are consistent and imply strong support for the focal hypothesis. The false alarm is either not consistent with these cues or redundant and ignored. In addition, three experiments provided evidence regarding base-rate utilization. When comparing conditions (1) and (2) it is demonstrated that the base-rate has a significant effect on judgments. Finally, the experiments provided evidence suggesting that the base-rate is not ignored when the datum is not diagnostic. The results are discussed in relation to the base-rate fallacy, pseudodiagnosticity, and cue consistency.     

Public and private self-consciousness and social phobia

The relationship between public and private self-consciousness and self-report questionnaires, clinician ratings, and various measures derived from an individualized simulation of an anxiety-provoking situation was examined in a sample of men and women seeking treatment for social phobia. As predicted, public, not private, self-consciousness was generally related to self-report and naive observer ratings of anxiety and to behavioral disruption during the simulation. The predicted relationship between public self-consciousness and how accurately subjects evaluated their performance in the anxiety-provoking situation was marginally supported. Hypotheses regarding the relationship between private self-consciousness and self-reported anxiety during an anxiety-provoking situation, and between private self-consciousness and the correspondence between physiological assessment and self-report, were not supported. The discussion focuses on methodological issues and the theoretical implications of the relationship between self-consciousness and social anxiety.     

Decision-making under uncertainty: biases and Bayesians

Animals (including humans) often face circumstances in which the best choice of action is not certain. Environmental cues may be ambiguous, and choices may be risky. This paper reviews the theoretical side of decision-making under uncertainty, particularly with regard to unknown risk (ambiguity). We use simple models to show that, irrespective of pay-offs, whether it is optimal to bias probability estimates depends upon how those estimates have been generated. In particular, if estimates have been calculated in a Bayesian framework with a sensible prior, it is best to use unbiased estimates. We review the extent of evidence for and against viewing animals (including humans) as Bayesian decision-makers. We pay particular attention to the Ellsberg Paradox, a classic result from experimental economics, in which human subjects appear to deviate from optimal decision-making by demonstrating an apparent aversion to ambiguity in a choice between two options with equal expected rewards. The paradox initially seems to be an example where decision-making estimates are biased relative to the Bayesian optimum. We discuss the extent to which the Bayesian paradigm might be applied to the evolution of decision-makers and how the Ellsberg Paradox may, with a deeper understanding, be resolved.     

The place of order and uncertainty in art and environmental aesthetics

Contrasting views in writings of architectural aesthetics regarding the virtues of diversity as opposed to unity are examined in terms of Berlyne's treatment of the unity-amid-variety issue, and of work by him and others attempting to distinguish effects of complexity and redundancy. Research on the role of structural relationships in complex configurations suggests the need for coming to grips with such Gestaltist variables as order and balance in the context of a motivational theory of response to aesthetic stimuli such as Berlyne's.This paper was written while the author was on leave at the Institute for Urban and Regional Development of the University of California at Berkeley, with partial support from a grant from the Farrand Fund of the Department of Landscape Architecture. It was prepared for a symposium in memory of Daniel Berlyne held at the meetings of the Canadian Psychological Association in Vancouver, B. C., June 9, 1977.     

Applying social psychology to the study of environmental concern and environmental worldviews: contributions from the social representations approach

Recently some social psychological approaches have intensified their contributions to research in the environmental domain, helping it to focus more consistently on the shared aspects of all environment related experiences. The goal of this paper is that of joining these efforts, exploring the contributions of the social representations approach to research on environmental concern and environmental thought, as another area for applying social psychological knowledge. The paper first sketches how the environmental concern of the publics emerged in the 70s as a problem for the social sciences and proceeds to summarizing the main characteristics of this research, focusing on three problematic areas: (1) incipient theoretical integration among the frameworks dominating research; (2) insufficient reflection about the assumptions and measurement of the concepts employed; (3) a need for new research questions that push studies beyond the analysis of the socio‐demographical correlates of beliefs. Afterwards a presentation of social representations theory will be undertaken and the usefulness of the approach to deal with some aspects of the problematic areas identified will be explored, with examples from recent research, and highlighting the importance of focusing on contradiction, polyphasia, and the articulation of the local and the global. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crime prevention through social and physical environmental change

One approach to crime prevention where behavior analysts can make important contributions is the modification of environmental opportunities and victim vulnerabilities that are related to higher rates of offending. Examples of environmental crime prevention are discussed in the following areas: (1) modifying physical environments in order to "harden" targets of crime, (2) training victims to be less vulnerable to victimization, (3) eliminating portrayals of certain groups of people that legitimize their victimization, and (4) organizing neighborhoods and communities to strengthen their means of social control. Two implications of environmental crime prevention-the role of individual differences and the scope of prevention-are discussed.     

Navigating uncertainty in human social decision-making: Consequences and coping strategies

Uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of human social life. Based on fruitful findings, the current review aims to establish a schema that outlines the relationship between uncertainty and human social decision-making: the influences of uncertainty on social decision-making (mainly prosocial behaviors) and the strategies commonly employed to reduce social uncertainty. Human prosocial behaviors are modulated by both social and nonsocial uncertainty. Specifically, uncertainty decreases prosocial behaviors by providing moral wiggling room or promoting loss aversion but also helps maintain relationships by mitigating negative interactions. Moreover, impression formation, impression updating, and compliance with social norms are crucial strategies for coping with social uncertainty, but they are subject to various biases. Finally, we highlight some important issues that need to be addressed in future studies. In summary, the current review deepens our understanding of the role of uncertainty in social behaviors.     

Partition priming in judgment under uncertainty

We show that likelihood judgments are biased toward an ignorance-prior probability that assigns equal credence to each mutually exclusive event considered by the judge. The value of the ignorance prior depends crucially on how the set of possibilities (i.e., the state space) is subjectively partitioned by the judge. For instance, asking "what is the probability that Sunday will be hotter than any other day next week?" facilitates a two-fold case partition, [Sunday hotter, Sunday not hotter], thus priming an ignorance prior of 1/2. In contrast, asking "what is the probability that the hottest day of the week will be Sunday?" facilitates a seven-fold class partition, [Sunday hottest, Monday hottest, etc.], priming an ignorance prior of 1/7. In four studies, we observed systematic partition dependence: Judgments made by participants presented with either case or class formulations of the same query were biased toward the corresponding ignorance prior.     

Judgement under uncertainty and conjunction fallacy inhibition training

Intuitive predictions and judgements under uncertainty are often mediated by judgemental heuristics that sometimes lead to biases. Our micro-developmental study suggests that a presumption of rationality is justified for adult subjects, in so far as their systematic judgemental biases appear to be due to a specific executive-inhibition failure in working memory, and not necessarily to a lack of understanding of the fundamental principles of probability. This hypothesis was tested using an experimental procedure in which 60 adult subjects were trained to inhibit the classical conjunction bias on a frequency judgement task derived from Tversky and Kahneman's work. Pre- and post-test performance was assessed via a probability judgement task. The data indicated a training effect, suggesting that subjects traditionally labelled as “irrational” with respect to the classical rules of inductive reasoning are in fact “inefficient inhibitors”. These findings are discussed in terms of a polymorphous view of rationality.