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Cooperation and the evolution of hunter-gatherer storytelling
Daniel Smith et al.
Nature Communications, December 2017
Abstract:
Storytelling is a human universal. From gathering around the camp-fire telling tales of ancestors to watching the latest television box-set, humans are inveterate producers and consumers of stories. Despite its ubiquity, little attention has been given to understanding the function and evolution of storytelling. Here we explore the impact of storytelling on hunter-gatherer cooperative behaviour and the individual-level fitness benefits to being a skilled storyteller. Stories told by the Agta, a Filipino hunter-gatherer population, convey messages relevant to coordinating behaviour in a foraging ecology, such as cooperation, sex equality and egalitarianism. These themes are present in narratives from other foraging societies. We also show that the presence of good storytellers is associated with increased cooperation. In return, skilled storytellers are preferred social partners and have greater reproductive success, providing a pathway by which group-beneficial behaviours, such as storytelling, can evolve via individual-level selection. We conclude that one of the adaptive functions of storytelling among hunter gatherers may be to organise cooperation.
Do Lies Erode Trust?
Glynis Gawn & Robert Innes
International Economic Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does honesty promote trust and trustworthiness? We investigate how being lied to (versus told the truth) in a Gneezy deception game affects behavior in a subsequent trust game with different players. Using a design that controls for potential treatment effects on payoffs, mood and beliefs about the overall propensity for honesty in the experiment, we find that the specific experience of being lied to significantly erodes trust and trustworthiness.
Trust, Reciprocity, and Rules
Thomas Rietz et al.
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many economic interactions rely on trust and trust violations can have serious economic consequences. Simple minimum standard rules are attractive because they prevent egregious trust violations. However, they may undermine more trusting and reciprocal (trustworthy) behavior that otherwise would have occurred, leading to worse outcomes. In an experimental trust game, we test the efficacy of exogenously imposed minimum standard rules. Rules damage trust and reciprocity, reducing economic welfare. While sufficiently restrictive rules restore welfare, trust and reciprocity never return. Results indicate that participants are concerned about payoffs while also using the game to learn about trust and trustworthiness of others.
The Economic and Interpersonal Consequences of Deflecting Direct Questions
Bradford Bitterly & Maurice Schweitzer
University of Pennsylvania Working Paper, November 2017
Abstract:
Direct, difficult questions (e.g., Do you have other offers? How much did you make in your prior job?) pose a challenge. Respondents may incur economic costs for honestly revealing information, reputational costs for engaging in deception, and interpersonal costs, including harm to perceptions of trust and likability, for directly declining to answer the question (e.g., I would rather not answer that question). Across four experiments, we explore the relative economic and interpersonal consequences of a fourth approach: Deflection, answering a direct question with another question. We contrast deflection with other types of responses and show that deflection can mitigate the economic costs of honest answers, the reputational costs of engaging in deception, and the interpersonal costs of directly declining to answer a question. Paradoxically, deflection works by invoking the same Gricean norm, the norm of answering a direct question that deflection violates.
"If stress is good for me, it's probably good for you too": Stress mindset and judgment of others' strain
Nili Ben-Avi, Sharon Toker & Daniel Heller
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, January 2018, Pages 98-110
Abstract:
Much is known about stress and its resulting strain (i.e., negative outcomes such as burnout or impaired health), but not about how we perceive others' strain and what the outcomes of such strain perceptions are. We integrated the social-projection and stress-mindset literatures to investigate, for the first time, the effect of holding a stress-is-enhancing, versus a stress-is-debilitating, mindset on social judgments of a target's strain, on the perceiver's consequent perceptions of the target's promotability, and on his or her intention to voluntarily help the target. We argued that perceivers may project their own stress-mindsets onto others, resulting in egocentrically-biased judgments of the latter's strain. We conducted four experimental and correlational studies, among 971 fully-employed Americans and Israelis, using a novel stress-mindset manipulation. We predicted and found evidence that, independent of the effects of mood, individuals holding a stress-is-enhancing versus a stress-is-debilitating mindset were less likely to judge a target experiencing a heavy workload as suffering from burnout, somatic symptoms, or presenteeism (i.e., reduced productivity at work due to health problems). We also revealed two important downstream outcomes: whereas the lower strain judgments associated with a stress-is-enhancing mindset led to a higher estimate of the target's promotability, they also led to a lower likelihood of helping him. Taken together, our findings establish a causal link between stress-mindset and judgments of others' strain, thereby extending the novel notion of stress-mindset beyond intra-personal outcomes to inter-personal effects. Results provide a foundation for future work addressing the accuracy of judgment of others' stress experience.
Social exposure and trustworthiness: Experimental evidence
Wei Bao et al.
Economics Letters, January 2018, Pages 73-75
Abstract:
A large number of empirical studies have investigated the value of exposing one's decisions to social networks in increasing trustworthy behavior, but these suffer from several limitations. This paper reports data from a controlled laboratory experiment that demonstrates even minimal social exposure dramatically increases trustworthy behavior.
No Assistance Desired: How Perceptions of Others' Self-Esteem Affect Support-Seeking
Justin Cavallo & Alexandra Hirniak
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Seeking social support from close others often instantiates effective support transactions that foster coping with negative events. However, people often do not solicit the support they require. The present research expands on this phenomenon by examining how perceptions of providers' self-esteem influences support recipients' willingness to seek help in times of need. Across five correlational, experimental, and dyadic investigations, we found that people were less willing to seek support from providers who they perceived to be lower (vs. higher) in self-esteem. Moreover, this effect was mediated by perceptions of efficacy in all studies, revealing that perceptions of providers' self-worth affect the extent that recipients view them as capable and thus are willing to turn to them for help.