Intuitive and deliberative processes underlying commitment signaling for cooperative assortment.

ABSTRACT: While costly signals of commitment were proposed to facilitate cooperative assortment in humans, little is known about cognitive processes facilitating the reliability of such commitment signals. Across three studies (total N = 2,223), we test whether this reliability is supported by intuitive processes or by deliberative cost-benefit evaluations. Participants played a public goods game in which they could send variously costly signals of commitment, and the signaling decision was made either under time pressure or delay. Under pressure, signals separated cooperators from selfish players only when signal cost was high. However, these intuitive, high-cost signals did not consistently predict subsequent cooperation. By contrast, when participants had time to deliberate under time dela

SUBMITTER: Lang M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12828412 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature