The Effect Of Reputation Spread On Cooperative Behavior

Widespread sharing of reputational information could help someone track the past behaviors of others and choose to work with reliable person.That is beneficial to solve the social dilemma in cooperation.The gossip is a kind of group interaction process widely existing in all fields of social life,and it is an important way to disseminate the positive or negative reputational information from individuals or groups.In recent years,the studies on the role of gossip in disseminating reputation grow increasingly popular.However,there are few researchers focus on whether and how reputational dissemination affects people's cooperation.And in the existed few studies,the conclusions were quite different.Some researchers found that reputational dissemination could reduce the morale and efficiency of people.Others agreed that reputational dissemination could promote cooperation,but they disagreed on which reputational information(positive vs.negative)could be more effective in promoting cooperation and they have their own theoretical explanation.One of the possible reasons for this inconsistency is the subject of information dissemination(the information senders vs.the information subjects vs.the information receivers)was not yet clear.Therefore,from the perspective of the subject of information dissemination,the present research aim at the effect and internal mechanism of reputational information dissemination(positive vs.negative)on the cooperative behaviors of the subject of information dissemination(the information senders vs.the information subjects vs.the information receivers).Three studies were reported in this paper.In this study,the dissemination of reputational information(positive vs.negative)was manipulated by the means of gossip.And the cooperative behaviors index were based on the participants performances in the gambling task,including “prisoner's dilemma”,“trust games”,“public goods games”,“black and white card games”,etc.In study 1,we adopted three experiments to respectively explored the influence of reputational information(positive vs.negative)on the cooperative behaviors of information senders(experiment 1),information subjects(experiments 2a and 2b),and information receivers(experiment 3).The results were compared with the controlled group,which provided a basis for subsequent studies.Based on the related research,the study 2employed reputational concern and emotion as potential mediated variables.And we used three experiments to respectively explored the potential mediating mechanism of reputational information(positive vs.negative)on the cooperative behaviors of information senders(experiment 4),information subjects(experiment 5),and information recipients(experiment 6).This study aimed to exploit the internal mechanism that reputational information(positive vs.negative)influence cooperative behavior.In study 3,we employed the social value orientation,task probability and competitive situation as the potential moderating variables.Three experiments were carried out to explore the individual and environmental differences in the mechanism of reputational information(positive vs.negative)influences the cooperative behaviors of the information senders(experiment 7a and 7b),the information subjects(experiment 8a and 8b),and the information receivers(experiment 9).The focus of this study was to further understand the external boundary conditions that reputation information(positive vs.negative)influences cooperative behavior.The main results were as follows: firstly,the reputational information dissemination advanced cooperation,but the influence of reputation information(positive vs.negative)on the cooperative behaviors of different subject in information dissemination was different.The information senders were more cooperative after they disseminated positive information.The information subjects were more cooperative when they faced the threat of spreading their reputational information and particularly spreading their negative reputational information by others.The information receivers were more cooperative when they received multiple negative reputational information.Secondly,the internal mechanisms that the reputational information(positive vs.negative)influences cooperative behaviors of different subject in information dissemination were different.The information of different valence affected the cooperative level of information senders through emotion and reputational concern(information valence ? emotion ? reputation concern ? cooperation),that is,subjects who disseminated positive information were more active,paid more attention to their reputation,and cooperated more.The information of different valence affected the cooperative level of information subjects through reputational concern(information valence ? reputation concern ? cooperation),that is,people who were disseminated negative information by others were more concerned about their reputation and cooperated with others.The information of different valence affected the cooperative level of information receivers through emotion(information valence? emotion ? cooperation),that is,people who received negative information from others were more passive,but they would adjust their behavior to make themselves more cooperative.Thirdly,there were individual differences in the effect of different valence information on the cooperative behaviors of different subject in information dissemination(social value orientation).The social value orientation moderated the relationship between information valence and information senders' cooperative behaviors through reputational concern,that is,pro-social individuals who disseminated positive information were more cooperative.The social value orientation moderated the relationship between information valence and information subjects' cooperative behaviors,that is,pro-social individuals who were disseminated positive information became more cooperative.The social value orientation also moderated the relationship between information valence and information subjects' cooperative behaviors by information concern,that is,pro-social or pro-oneself individuals concerned more about reputation and cooperated if they weredisseminated negative information by others.The social value orientation moderated the relationship between information valence and information receivers' cooperative behaviors,that is,pro-oneself individuals who received the negative information were more cooperative.Fourthly,there were environmental differences in the effect of different valence information on the cooperative behaviors of different subject in information dissemination(competitive situation).The inter-group competitive situation moderated the relationship between information valence and information senders' cooperative behaviors,that is,the individuals who sent positive information were more willing to cooperated with out-group members.The in-group competitive situation moderated the relationship between information valence and information senders' cooperative behaviors by reputation concern,that is,the individuals who disseminated positive information were more willing to cooperated with in-group members.The in-group competitive situation moderated the relationship between information valence and information subjects' cooperative behaviors,that is,the individuals who were disseminated positive information were more willing to cooperated with in-group members.The inter-group competitive situation moderated the relationship between information valence and information subjects' cooperative behaviors by reputation concern,that is,the individuals who were disseminated positive information were more willing to cooperated with out-group members.The inter-group and in-group competitive situation moderated the relationship between information valence and information receivers' cooperative behavior by partner choice,that is,the individuals who received positive information were more willing to cooperated with in-group or out-group members.This study further proved that reputation system was one of the most effective ways to promote cooperation.It supported and supplemented the theory of indirect reciprocity in the two roles of information senders and information subjects.Thepresent study also supported and supplemented the theory of unfair disgust and cultural learning in the role of information receivers.In the meanwhile,different moderate effect ways were found.Based on these,we proposed the multiple mechanism model that produced by the interaction between the two valences and three roles,which is combined with the effect of the spreading reputational information on cooperative behavior.That is to say,when considering the effect of reputation spread on cooperative behavior,we should fully value the different effect of the reputational information valence(positive vs.negative)on the different subject in information dissemination(the information senders vs.the information subjects vs.the information receivers).This study would provide references for individuals on how to manage,disseminate,and respond to their own and others' reputational information.It can also provide organizations with valuable information on the spread of reputation and provide advice on the application of reputation systems in cooperation to minimize the pain of the spread of reputation and to optimize the benefits of the spread of reputation.