Prosocial preferences can escalate intergroup conflicts by countering selfish motivations to leave.

ABSTRACT: When defending against hostile enemies, individual group members can benefit from others staying in the group and fighting. However, individuals themselves may be better off by leaving the group and avoiding the personal risks associated with fighting. While fleeing is indeed commonly observed, when and why defenders fight or flee remains poorly understood and is addressed here with three incentivized and preregistered experiments (total n = 602). In stylized attacker-defender contest games in which defenders could stay and fight or leave, we show that the less costly leaving is, the more likely individuals are to abandon their group. In addition, more risk-averse individuals are more likely to leave. Conversely, individuals more likely stay and fight when they have pro-social preferences

SUBMITTER: Snijder LL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11489402 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature