Partner choice and cooperation in social dilemmas can increase resource inequality.

ABSTRACT: Cooperation is more likely when individuals can choose their interaction partner. However, partner choice may be detrimental in unequal societies, in which individuals differ in available resources and productivity, and thus in their attractiveness as interaction partners. Here we experimentally examine this conjecture in a repeated public goods game. Individuals (n = 336), participating in groups of eight participants, are assigned a high or low endowment and a high or low productivity factor (the value that their cooperation generates), creating four unique participant types. On each round, individuals are either assigned a partner (assigned partner condition) or paired based on their self-indicated preference for a partner type (partner choice condition). Results show that under partner

SUBMITTER: Stallen M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10575984 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature