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Small Wins: Perceptual Focus, Efficacy, and Cooperation in a Stage‐Conjunctive Social Dilemma 1
Author(s) -
Kaufman Cynthia M.,
Kerr Norbert L.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1993.tb01001.x
Subject(s) - dilemma , task (project management) , social dilemma , psychology , social psychology , perception , stage (stratigraphy) , action (physics) , focus (optics) , affect (linguistics) , economics , communication , epistemology , management , paleontology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , optics , biology
A multi‐stage social dilemma was used to explore the notion that focusing on part rather than all of a complex problem would affect self‐efficacy and action. In two experiments subjects considered a multi‐stage game asking them to invest an initial sum of money in hopes of earning a larger bonus to be paid if provision points were met at all stages (a “stage‐conjunctive” task). Results indicated that under most conditions considered, presentation of the whole problem encouraged cooperation. The opposite pattern occurred when group members were asked to complete very demanding stages first. We suggest that these results depend strongly on the stage‐conjunctive nature of our task.