Motivational processes in the decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma game.

Abstract

Investigated the psychological dimensions and processes associated with 3 decomposed Prisoner's Dilemma games that produced radically different patterns of action in a previous study by D. G. Pruitt (see 41:11). 120 male undergraduates were assigned to the cells of a 3 * 2 design, involving the 3 games and cooperative vs. noncooperative input from the "other player." 30 more Ss were run as controls, which demonstrated that the use of questionnaires on every trial had no effect on behavior. Behavioral and questionnaire data converged on a motivational explanation of the differences among the games. The 2 games that produced cooperative behavior in the earlier study apparently elicit a relatively durable desire for cooperation from the other player. The game that previously produced noncooperation apparently elicits a desire for the payoff associated with mutual noncooperation and a fragile interest in fair division. These motives can be traced to features of the reward structure of the games. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)