The Effect Of Awe On Cooperative Behavior Of College Students:The Mediating Role Of Subjective Interdependence

In the social dilemma of conflict between individual interests and collective interests,cooperation with each other is the optimal decision to maximize the interests of both sides.However,due to the different degrees of perceived interdependence with others,the cooperative behavior of individuals will be different,that is,the level of subjective interdependence will affect the cooperative behavior.Awe,as an important positive emotion,is closely related to cooperative behavior.Meanwhile,awe can improve individual’s sense of connection with others and reduce their attention to their own interests.Therefore,the effect of awe on cooperative behavior may be achieved by increasing the degree that an individual perceives interdependence with others and reducing the perceived conflict of interest with others.This study explored the effect of awe on cooperative behavior and its possible internal mechanism through two sub-studies.The first study explored the relationship between college students’ awe and cooperation tendency,and the mediating role of subjective interdependence.from attitude levels.The study was carried out using the Scale of Awe of College Students,the Situational Interdependence Scale and the cooperative subscale of the Measurement of Cooperative and Competitive Personality Tendency.It is found that awe positively predicted mutual dependence,future interdependence of subjective interdependence and cooperative behavior tendency,and significantly negatively predicted conflict of subjective interdependence.Mutual dependence and future interdependence significantly positively predicted cooperative behavior tendency,while conflict significantly negatively predicted cooperative behavior tendency.Mutual dependence,future interdependence and conflict play a partly mediating role in the relationship between awe and cooperative behavior tendency.In the second study,the effect of awe on cooperative behavior and its internal mechanism were investigated from the behavior level.This study,used a 2×3 mixed experimental design,in which the emotional priming was an inter-subject factor,and Audio-visual material was used to induce awe and neutral emotions;the type of interaction object is the internal factor of the subject,and the computer program is used to simulate the interaction with three types of interactive objects（collaborator,the traitor,the neutral）that may be encountered in real life.Participants played the repeated prisoner’s dilemma game with these three types of interaction objects.The cooperative behavior of the subjects in the repeated prisoner’s dilemma game was taken as the dependent variable.At the same time,the mediating effect of subjective interdependence on awe and cooperative behavior was explored using the Situational Interdependence Scale.Chi-square test showed that the total number of cooperative behaviors in the awe priming group was significantly higher than that in the neutral priming group.Repeated measures analysis of variance found that the main effect of emotional priming was significant,the cooperation rate of the awe priming group was higher than that of the neutral priming group,and the benefit was lower than that of the neutral priming group;the main effect of the type of interaction object is significant,and the individual shows the most cooperative behavior when interacting with the cooperator;interacting with neutrals is the second most important,and betrayer the least.In addition,there was no significant difference in the scores of different emotional priming groups on subjective interdependence,and the subdimension conflict of subjective interdependence significantly negatively predicted cooperative behavior.The overall conclusions are as follows:（1）Awe can promote the cooperative behavior tendency and cooperative behavior of college students.（2）Awe can improve the cooperative behavior tendency by increasing the perceived degree of interdependence and future interdependence with others,and reducing the degree of conflict with others perceived by individuals.（3）In the interaction,the more cooperative behaviors exhibited by the interacting object,the more cooperative behaviors exhibited by the individual.