Week 8, Monday Lecture Outline

Cooperation and Conflict

Week 8, Monday

Psychology 360
Outline

• I. Why cooperate?
• II. Influences on cooperation
• III. Conflict as a path to cooperation

Why Cooperate?

• produce mutual benefit
• accomplish tasks beyond the capacity of individuals
• satisfy affiliative needs

A Simulation of Cooperation

• two research directors with complementary data on a new discovery
• both share -- each profits by $20,000
• neither shares -- each loses $20,000
• if one shares -- the sharing director loses $60,000; the other director profits by $60,000

Payoff Matrix
Why is Cooperation Difficult?

• function of rewards system, vis the "commons dilemma"
• function of culture, vis Deming's critique of U.S. society

The Commons Dilemma

• farmers have common pasture for cattle
• for each individual farmer it is rational to increase the size of the herd
• for the collective this strategy is a disaster -- overgrazing exhausts the common pasture

U.S. versus Japanese Culture

• Japanese society is collectivistic
  • concern about group outcomes
  • "the nail that sticks up gets pounded down"
• U.S. society is individualistic
  • concern about personal outcomes
  • "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"

Conflict as a Path to Cooperation

• Conflict may increase levels of cooperation:
  • when conflict brings out problems and new ideas
  • when conflict occurs within the context of superordinate goals
  • when mechanisms exist for managing conflict

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Revised - November 4, 1996