Self-Conscious or Fear of Hurting Another's Feeling? An Experimental Investigation on Promise-Keeping.

ABSTRACT: We conducted an experimental investigation into whether the effect of non-binding verbal promises in enhancing cooperation among promisors is derived from the internalized norm mechanism or the expectation-based mechanism. We proposed a new experimental design based on the standard trust game to separate the two possible influence mechanisms of promises and assess the empirical support for these two mechanisms for the effect of promises. We also identified individuals' cooperation preferences to further investigate whether the effect of promises and its underlying mechanism differ between individuals with different preferences. The results show that promises significantly improve promisors' cooperation level, and this effect is only in line with the internalized norm mechanism rather than

SUBMITTER: Zhang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7561381 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature