Group Discussion and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

Face-to-face discussion has been shown to increase cooperative behavior in social dilemmas. Two general explanations of this effect were tested: group identity (concern for fellow group members' outcomes) and perception of consensus (degree of agreement perceived among group members on how to respond to the dilemma). Undergraduate students participated in four person groups in one of four experimental conditions. The four conditions differed in common fate (interdependent outcome in a lottery), face-to-face discussion of the dilemma, discussion of an important (irrelevant) issue, and no discussion (control). Results indicate that (a) the common fate manipulation neither aroused group identity nor enhanced cooperation, (b) group identity may not be sufficient to elicit cooperation in a social dilemma, and (c) the most plausible explanation of group discussion effects is members' perceived consensus to cooperate.