A Study On The Effects Of Self - Conception Types And The Effects Of Group Deviation On Cooperative Behavior

Cooperation has been the topic of which sociology, economics and several other areas had studied for a long time. Through several experiments, this paper (366subjects were adopted) aimed at discussing whether the self-construction and the effect of in-group-out-group bias would influence individual’s cooperative behavior from the psychological point of view, and investigating whether individual’s cooperative behavior could be improved when we replaced the original group by the more inclusive group (i.e., facilitated a transformation of members’ perceptions of group boundaries from "us" and "them" to a more inclusive "we"). Also, we will explore whether individual’s degree of in-group identification will have an impact on cooperative behavior in the in-group member context and the more conclusive group member context which both can stimulate individual’s in-group preference. The main experimental results are as follows:Firstly, self-construal had a significant main effect on the level of cooperative behavior. People of interdependent self-construal exhibited higher level of cooperative than people of independent self-construal.Secondly, in-group-out-group bias had a main effect on the level of cooperative behavior. People were more cooperative toward in-group members than they were toward out-group members.Thirdly, self-construal and in-group-out-group bias had a marginal significant interaction. Interdependents chose less money when played games with the in-group members than playing with the out-group members, i.e. interdependents observed more cooperative toward in-group members than they were toward out-group members, in-group-out-group bias had a significant influence on the cooperative behavior of interdependents; for the independents, no matter they were playing games with in-group members or playing with out-group members, the difference of the level of cooperative behavior was not significant.Fourthly, when we replaced the original group with the upper group (expanded the original group boundary, and made the out-group members into the in-group members of the more inclusive upper group), people’s level of cooperative behavior exhibited a significant increase.Fifthly, the level of group identity didn’t show a remarkable influence on the cooperative behavior. Even in the in-group context and in the upper-group context which can stimulate people’s in-group identity, the difference of people’s level of cooperative behavior was not significant.