Social value related response latencies: Unobtrusive evidence for individual differences in information processing

While much research concerning decision-making in interdependency situations concentrates on the influence of social values or different preferences for certain distributions of outcomes for self and other (McClintock, 1978), little attention has been paid to the cognitive processes underlying the expression of these different social values. The present research focuses on the cognitive processes by examining the influence of the dominant social values on decision-makers' response latencies (RLs) in interdependency situations. Using the Ring Measure of Social Values (Liebrand 1984), three experiments were conducted to assess these RLs. Experiment 1 examines the reliability of the social value construct and the RL effect. Experiments 2 and 3 investigate the generality of the RL effect across presentation of combinations of own and other's outcomes (all positive versus all negative). As predicted, RLs were shorter for individualists than for cooperators and competitors. Further, regardless of values, shorter RLs occurred across experiments when own outcomes are positive rather than negative. More important, the predicted interaction between social value and outcome distribution was observed, reflecting increasing RLs for cooperators as their joint outcomes decreased, longer RLs for individualists when own outcomes were negative rather than positive, and longer RLs for competitors when they were outcome disadvantaged rather than advantaged relative to other. These findings are consistent with the expectation that (I) the transformations associated with different social values require different cognitive processes, and (2) subsequent to the value transformations of outcomes, RLs increase when the utility of the transformed outcome distributions decreases.     

Effects of social value orientation on expecting and learning others' orientations

The influence of an individual's own social value orientation on the orientation expected from others and on the learning of others' social orientations was examined. The subjects (N = 148) were classified according to theirown social value orientation. The orientations they generally expected from others were assessed as well. Each subject learned the choices of five other persons, representing the orientations altruism, cooperation, equality, individualism, and competition. With respect to subjects' expectations of others' orientations the triangle hypothesis was not fully supported: only individualists expected their orientation in high frequencies. The false consensus hypothesis received more support. Generally an orientation was expected more frequently by subjects who themselves had that particular orientation than by subjects with other orientations. With regard to the learning of others' orientations support was found for the predictions derived from the triangle and the false consensus hypothesis. Cooperators and individualists were the best overall learners, followed by egalitarian and maximum subjects, and at the lowest level competitors. In addition, nearly every orientation was learned better by subjects who had that orientation than by subjects with a different orientation.     

Social value orientations and negotiator outcomes

Social value orientations (SVOs) are known to influence individual behaviour in outcome interdependent settings. By extending these findings to negotiation, this research investigates the relationship between own and partners' SVOs, negotiator strategies and outcomes. Results showed that cooperators, competitors and individualists could be distinguished in terms of initial demands and concessions. Competitors made higher initial demands and larger concessions than individualists or cooperators, suggesting that their ability to maximize outcome differences rests on whether structural features are congruent with this goal. The principal finding of this research was the demonstration that own and partners' SVO interact to determine outcomes. Results showed that the three SVO groups differed in terms of context sensitivity: competitor outcomes were invariant across partners; individualists achieved poor outcomes in negotiations with cooperators and, reciprocally, cooperators attained high outcomes in negotiations with individualists. Additionally, individualist outcomes worsened in their last negotiation, while those of cooperators differed as a function of role and partner's SVO. These results suggest that although the information used by individualists and cooperators differs, for both groups the cognitive representation of negotiations is a further factor influencing their outcomes.     

Beliefs about the social orientations of others: A parametric test of the triangle,false consensus,and cone hypotheses

This study tests a number of hypotheses proposed in the literature concerning the relationship between an actor's social orientation and her beliefs about the social orientations of others. In contrast to the existing literature, this study employs a parametric approach with an innovative methodology. First, the social orientation parameters of actors are estimated: the weights respondents add to (1) the outcomes of Alter and to (2) the absolute difference between the outcomes for Ego and Alter. Then, the mean and the variance of the distribution of beliefs about the social orientation parameters of others are estimated, conditional on the actor's social orientation parameters. The results show that (1) there is a positive association between an actor's social orientation and her belief about the mean of the social orientations of others and (2) those who have approximately zero social orientation parameter values (individualists) expect the variation of others' social orientations to be lower than those with smaller (competitors) or larger (cooperators/egalitarians) social orientation parameter values. These results support the cone model, which models the “false” consensus effect where the “false” consensus is highest for individualists.     

Social Value Orientation and Helping Behavior1

The present study investigated the relationship between people's social value orientations and helping behavior. Subjects dassified a priori as either cooperators, individualists, or competitors were mailed a request to volunteer from zero to ten hours of their time to a worthy cause. Subjects were asked to indicate on their response forms the number of hours, if any, that they wished to contribute and to retum these forms using an enclosed self-addressed envelope regardless of whether they intended to donate any hours. The results revealed that subjects of all three social value orientations were equally likely to comply to the small request to return their response forms. However, the number of hours that subjects contributed differed as a function of their social values. As predicted, cooperators contributed significantly more of their time to the cause than did individualists and competitors. We relate these findings to previous research on social values and helping behavior.     

Confidence in expectations: A test of the triangle hypothesis

Kelley and Stahelski's (1970) triangle hypothesis states that competitors hold homogeneous views of others by assuming that most others are competitive, whereas cooperators or pro-social people hold more heterogeneous views by assuming that others are either cooperative or competitive. To evaluate the triangle hypothesis, this study examines differences between pro-socials, individualists, and competitors not only in their expectations about others' choice behaviour, but also in the confidence with which such expectations are held. It was found that pro-social subjects expected more cooperation than individualists and competitors. More importantly, as predicted on the basis of the triangle hypothesis, pro-socials were less confident about their expectations than competitors, with individualists holding intermediate levels of confidence.     

Social Value Orientation,Expectations, and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas: A Meta‐analysis

Interdependent situations are pervasive in human life. In these situations, it is essential to form expectations about the others' behaviour to adapt one's own behaviour to increase mutual outcomes and avoid exploitation. Social value orientation, which describes the dispositional weights individuals attach to their own and to another person's outcome, predicts these expectations of cooperation in social dilemmas—an interdependent situation involving a conflict of interests. Yet, scientific evidence is inconclusive about the exact differences in expectations between prosocials, individualists, and competitors. The present meta‐analytic results show that, relative to proselfs (individualists and competitors), prosocials expect more cooperation from others in social dilemmas, whereas individualists and competitors do not significantly differ in their expectations. The importance of these expectations in the decision process is further highlighted by the finding that they partially mediate the well‐established relation between social value orientation and cooperative behaviour in social dilemmas. In fact, even proselfs are more likely to cooperate when they expect their partner to cooperate. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Perceiving high social mindfulness during interpersonal interaction promotes cooperative behaviours

Social mindfulness refers to individual's respect and protection of others’ options in interpersonal interaction. The object‐choosing task is a traditional paradigm to assess social mindfulness. Individuals with high social mindfulness would choose the nonunique object so that others would have more options; on the contrary, individuals with low social mindfulness would choose the unique object, which limits others’ choices. No prior study has examined whether perceiving people with different levels of social mindfulness affects one's cooperation. Based on this background, two experiments were conducted to address this question. In both experiments, a confederate participant's (Player A's) social mindfulness was manipulated by setting the frequency that Player A chose the unique and the nonunique objects. Then, participants were asked to interact with Player A in the public goods game (Experiment 1) or in the centipede game (Experiment 2). Convergent results showed that compared to those interacting with a socially unmindful person, participants interacting with a person perceived as socially mindful contributed more resources in the public goods game and chose to pass on more rounds in the centipede game. These findings suggest that perception of others’ high social mindfulness enhances one's own cooperative behaviour.     

Attitude Change Toward Animal Experimentation in an Academic Setting

Social values theory was used to examine how parents make decisions for their adolescent children. Social values theory states that decision making for others is based on the social value of an action, leading to a norm for how to decide for others, whereas self decisions are influenced by a number of additional factors. Consistent with a risk-aversion norm, in hypothetical health and safety scenarios parents made more risk-averse decisions for their adolescent children than for themselves. Further, the level of risk and inconvenience affected self decisions more than decisions for one's child. A second study showed that the norm was stronger for decisions for one's child than for oneself and more related to parents’ decisions for their child than for themselves. In sum, parents’ decisions for their children seem to be largely determined by a norm stating how they are supposed to decide, at least in the domain of health and safety. Implications for both the judgment and decision making and parenting literatures are discussed.     

An Examination of the Adlerian Construct of Social Interest With Criminal Offenders

The present study addressed the utility of the construct of social interest as related to the behaviors of criminal offenders. Social interest involves concern for others and optimism regarding one's view of the world. Offender scores on the Sulliman Scale of Social Interest (J. R. Sulliman, 1973) were examined along with demographic and criminal history predictors of parolee outcomes following release from a medium security correctional institution. The results indicated significant relationships between social interest scores and offender outcome as demonstrated by employment status, new felony arrests, and reincarceration status. The results have implications for those involved in predictive and rehabilitative efforts with criminal offenders.     

Casuistry and social category bias

This research explored cases where people are drawn to make judgments between individuals based on questionable criteria, in particular those individuals' social group memberships. We suggest that individuals engage in casuistry to mask biased decision making, by recruiting more acceptable criteria to justify such decisions. We present 6 studies that demonstrate how casuistry licenses people to judge on the basis of social category information but appear unbiased--to both others and themselves--while doing so. In 2 domains (employment and college admissions decisions), with 2 social categories (gender and race), and with 2 motivations (favoring an in-group or out-group), the present studies explored how participants justify decisions biased by social category information by arbitrarily inflating the relative value of their preferred candidates' qualifications over those of competitors.     

Walking through interaction. Comments on Harold H. Kelley's: ‘Expanding the analysis of social interactions by reference to the sequential-temporal structures of situations’

Kelley proposes to analyse social orientations in terms of decision making. Social orientations are defined by classes of decision rules which an individual adopts when entering and developing an interaction with another person. Contrary to the most traditional approach, outcome allocation decisions are only an element of a chain of decisions made by the individual. The new theory broadens our view of interactions, draws our attention to their complexity and their dynamics. On the other hand, Kelley's man behaves as if he or she processed information in a systematic way, perceived long-term outcomes and as if he or she controlled the interaction to achieve desirable outcomes. The vision of man as an internally consistent decision-maker is questionable. Many choices made in interaction with others are spontaneous and emotion driven rather than a result of deliberate information processing. Kelley's theory offers a highly sophisticated tool for a temporal analysis of social interactions even though it cannot be applied to the entire spectrum of interdependence situations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

价值取向对自我他人决策时公平规范执行的影响

社会价值取向反映了人们对自己和他人分配结果的一种稳定偏好,影响着个体对提议公平性的认知及规范执行。同时,自我-他人决策差异也是影响规范执行的重要因素,但目前尚不清楚价值取向和社会距离如何影响公平规范执行。本研究选取了20名合作者和20名个人主义者,使用单次匿名最后通牒博弈任务,考察了资产分配情景中价值取向对自我-他人决策时公平规范执行的影响。结果表明：（1）相比自我决策条件,合作者在替他人决策时更多的接受不公平提议,而公平提议的接受率不受社会距离的调节;个人主义者的提议接受率则不受社会距离和提议类型的交互影响;（2）合作者替他人决策时的接受阈限显著高于自我决策,而个人主义者在自我决策和替他人决策时的接受阈限无显著差异。这些结果表明价值取向能够调节自我-他人决策时,人们对不公平提议的规范执行。     

Social allergies in romantic relationships: Behavioral repetition,emotional sensitization,and dissatisfaction in dating couples

A social allergy is a reaction of hypersensitive annoyance or disgust to a repeated behavior. Two studies were conducted on the social allergen categories of uncouth habits, inconsiderate acts, intrusive behaviors, and norm violations. Study 1 focused on hypothetical male and female partner behaviors at 2 and 12 months in a dating relationship. Study 2 obtained reports of social allergens performed by the individual and partner in dating couples, as well as the individual's emotional responses and relationship outcomes. Social allergens were perceived to increase in frequency over time in both studies, with some indications that men were more uncouth and norm violating and women were more inconsiderate and intrusive. Study 2 also found that the more often that the partner performed an allergenic behavior, the stronger was the individual's negative emotional reaction. Further, frequent and emotionally intense social allergens were associated with relationship dissatisfaction, and with termination assessed a year later.     

Causal attribution and self-justification as explanations for the consensus expectation of one's social value orientation

This study focuses on explanations for the perceived consensus of one's own social value orientation. The prediction of the triangle hypothesis that the consensus expectation of individualistic and competitive people is higher than that of cooperative people was partially supported. Only individualists expected their own orientation more frequently of other people. According to a causal attribution explanation, it was expected that subjects' causal attributions for their own orientation to internal and external causes influenced their consensus expectations. Only attributions to internal causes differed significantly between subjects with different orientations and corresponded with their consensus estimates. Individualism was attributed least internally, cooperation most internally, and competition in between. Additionally, direct support for the effect of internal attributions on consensus expectations was found. Compared with subjects who attributed their own orientation more internally, subjects who attributed it less internally were more likely to expect their own orientation among other people. According to a self-justification explanation, it was hypothesized that the consensus expectations of individualists and competitors would be higher when first their own social orientation was assessed and then the orientation they expected to predominate among others than in the reversed order. This hypothesis was not supported.     

Effects of Environmental Uncertainty and Social Value Orientation in Resource Dilemmas

This study investigated the relationship between environmental uncertainty and social value orientation in a replenishable resource dilemma paradigm. One hundred seventy-two undergraduates harvested units from a common resource pool over 20 trials. Two levels of social value orientation (cooperative, noncooperative) were crossed with two levels of replenishment rate uncertainty (low, high). As predicted, noncooperators harvested significantly more resources than cooperators and high uncertainty subjects harvested more resources than low uncertainty subjects. The primary finding was the hypothesized three-way interaction among social value orientation, environmental uncertainty, and trials: Social value orientation moderated harvest decisionsonlyunder conditions of high uncertainty during the middle series of harvest trials. Noncooperators increased their harvests during this period, while cooperators harvested less and held their harvests constant across these trials. These results demonstrate that systematic individual differences exist in decision makers' responses to high environmental uncertainty. We suggest that social value orientation may exert its effect by influencing the scanning and processing of goal-relevant cues in this decision environment.     

An interdependence analysis of commuting decisions

The current research advances an interdependence analysis of commuting decisions (i.e. commuting by car versus public transportation), delineating the determinants of an individual's outcomes in terms of own decisions, other commuters' decisions, and the combination or interaction of own and others' decisions (Kelley & Thibaut, 1978). Consistent with hypotheses, findings revealed that a concern with comfort led to a higher overall personal preference for the car, and a lower overall preference for others to commute by public transportation, when compared to a concern with travel time. Additionally, consistent with the claim that commuter decisions are also guided by considerations broader than a concern with individual outcomes, findings revealed that individuals with prosocial orientations (i.e. those concerned with maximizing collective outcomes) in combination with high levels of trust (i.e. believing in the honesty and cooperative intentions of others) exhibited a greater overall personal preference for public transportation, and a reduced desire to avoid other commuters, relative to individuals with a prosocial orientation and low levels of trust, or a proself orientation (i.e. those concerned primarily with maximizing own outcomes), regardless of levels of trust. Finally, consistent with the current interdependence analysis, intention to commute by car was positively associated with not only overall personal preference for the car, but also with the desire to avoid other commuters. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social Interdependence and Orientation Toward Life and Work1

The relationship between social interdependence and orientation toward life and work was investigated in this study. Participants were 135 dyads of Chinese employees from 4 companies. Cooperativeness was significantly related to positive indexes of orientation toward life and work, competitiveness was related to a positive orientation toward life, and a predisposition to act individualistically was related to general measures but very few of the work‐specific measures. Coworkers' ratings indicate that cooperators were perceived as being very positive and productive employees, while competitors and individualists were perceived negatively in terms of work productivity and relationships with others. The discrepancy between self‐perceptions and perceptions of coworkers indicate that competitors especially may have a self‐beneficial delusion about the effectiveness of their behavior.     

Two of a kind: Perceptions of own and partner's attachment characteristics

Because it is universally relevant, and because it is formed in infancy, giving it a strong preconscious quality, attachment was chosen for a study of Allport's (1924) construct of social projection. Individuals in 301 dating couples rated themselves and their partners on each of four continuous attachment dimensions (i.e., security, dismissiveness, preoccupation, fearfulness). The individual's own rating on a particular dimension significantly predicted the individual's perception of how the partner rated on the dimension, after controlling for the partner's self-rating on the dimension. Thus people perceived their partners to be more similar to themselves than they really were, demonstrating social projection. In general, the higher the degree of emotional intimacy was, the more social projection was demonstrated.