Cooperation and Trust in Japanese and British Samples: Evidence From Incomplete Information Games
Abstract
Most human relationships are characterized by reciprocal patterns of give-and-take that can be studied using a decision-making task called the Centipede game. The game involves 2 players alternating in choosing between cooperation and defection, with their choices affecting payoffs to themselves and the co-player. We compared trust and cooperation of Japanese and U.K. samples in the Centipede game. To increase the game’s applicability to real-life decision situations, we added 3 treatment conditions to manipulate payoff information. Our between-subjects design comprised the following 4 conditions: (a) full payoff information, (b) full payoff information framed as percentages, (c) partial payoff information with absolute (own payoff) information only, and (d) partial payoff information with relative information only. Comparing Japanese and U.K. students’ decisions, the Japanese cooperated significantly more frequently than the British. The manipulation of payoff information also affected decision making. In Japan, both treatment conditions with incomplete information yielded significantly higher cooperation levels than the control. In the U.K., only the condition with absolute payoff information produced significantly higher cooperativeness. Overall, these findings suggest that Japanese samples cooperate more frequently in repeated interactions than British samples and that this may be due to the assurance-based trust elicited by reciprocal relationships that has been identified as a typical feature of Japanese culture. In situations with incomplete information, expectations about the stake size may guide decision making, with lower expectations resulting in higher cooperation levels.
References
1995). Backward induction and common knowledge of rationality. Games and Economic Behavior, 8, 6–19. 10.1016/S0899-8256(05)80015-6
(1998). On the Centipede game. Games and Economic Behavior, 23, 97–105. 10.1006/game.1997.0605
(2009). Social value orientation and cooperation in social dilemmas: A meta-analysis. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 12, 533–547. 10.1177/1368430209105040
(2011). Culture, cooperation, and the general welfare. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74, 341–360. 10.1177/0190272511422451
(2006). A domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) Scale for adult populations. Judgment and Decision Making, 1, 33–47.
(1990). High reward experiments without high expenditure for the experimenter. Journal of Economic Psychology, 11, 157–167. 10.1016/0167-4870(90)90001-P
(2016). Adaptation of assessment scales in cross-national research: Issues, guidelines, and caveats. International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation, 5, 51–65. 10.1037/ipp0000042
(2009). Exploring the link between self-construal and distress among African American and Asian American college students. Journal of College Counseling, 12, 44–56. 10.1002/j.2161-1882.2009.tb00039.x
(2017).
(Rationality and backward induction in Centipede games . In N. GalbraithE. LucasD. E. Over (Eds.), The thinking mind: A Festschrift for Ken Manktelow (pp. 139–150). London: Routledge.2005). Trust building via risk taking: A cross-societal experiment. Social Psychology Quarterly, 68, 121–142. 10.1177/019027250506800202
(1991). Effects of ethnic group cultural differences on cooperative and competitive behavior on a group task. Academy of Management Journal, 34, 827–847. 10.2307/256391
(1996). Information in ultimatum games: An experimental study. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 30, 197–212. 10.1016/S0167-2681(96)00857-8
(1998). On the validity of the random lottery incentive system. Experimental Economics, 1, 115–131. 10.1023/A:1026435508449
(1996). An experimental study of constant-sum Centipede games. International Journal of Game Theory, 25, 269–287. 10.1007/BF02425258
(1999). Reciprocity, trust, and the sense of control: A cross-societal study. Rationality and Society, 11, 27–46. 10.1177/104346399011001002
(1993).
(Relational orientation in Asian social psychology . In U. KimJ. W. Berry (Eds.), Indigenous psychologies: Research and experience in cultural context (pp. 240–259). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.2001a). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2001b). Two wonderlands: Japan and the Netherlands through the looking-glass. International Scope Review, 3, 1–10.
(2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
(2012). The effects of the increment asymmetry in payoff and risk cost on the centipede game. International Journal of Psychology, 47, 131. 10.1080/00207594.2012.709089
(2007). The role of the self-concept and the social context in determining the behavior of power holders: Self-construal in intergroup versus dyadic dispute resolution negotiations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 614–631. 10.1037/0022-3514.93.4.614
(2012). Level-K analysis of experimental Centipede games. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 82, 548–566.
(2004). Power dependence, diversification strategy, and performance in keiretsu member firms. Strategic Management Journal, 25, 613–636. 10.1002/smj.395
(2006). Does trust beget trustworthiness? Trust and trustworthiness in two games and two cultures: A research note. Social Psychology Quarterly, 69, 270–283. 10.1177/019027250606900304
(2015). Competitive Centipede games: Zero-end payoffs and payoff inequality deter reciprocal cooperation. Games, 6, 262–272. 10.3390/g6030262
(2016). Exploring cooperation and competition in the Centipede game through verbal protocol analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 46, 746–761. 10.1002/ejsp.2226
(2017). Commitment-enhancing tools in Centipede games: Evidencing European-Japanese differences in trust and cooperation. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour, University of Leicester, UK.
(2007). Culture, identity, and structure in social exchange: A web-based trust experiment in the United States and Japan. Social Psychology Quarterly, 70, 461–479. 10.1177/019027250707000412
(2003). Shifting selves and decision making: The effects of self-construal priming on consumer risk-taking. Journal of Consumer Research, 30, 30–40. 10.1086/374700
(1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224–253. 10.1037/0033-295X.98.2.224
(1999). Culture and self: An empirical assessment of Markus and Kitayama’s theory of independent and interdependent self-construals. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2, 289–310. 10.1111/1467-839X.00042
(1972). Social motivation: A set of propositions. Behavioral Science, 17, 438–454. 10.1002/bs.3830170505
(1992). An experimental study of the Centipede game. Econometrica, 60, 803–836. 10.2307/2951567
(1968). Motivational bases of choice in experimental games. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 4, 1–25. 10.1016/0022-1031(68)90046-2
(2011). Measuring social value orientation. Judgment and Decision Making, 6, 771–781.
(2006). The breakdown of cooperation in iterative real-time trust dilemmas. Experimental Economics, 9, 147–166. 10.1007/s10683-006-7049-4
(2002). Rethinking individualism and collectivism: Evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 3–72. 10.1037/0033-2909.128.1.3
(2017). Reasons for cooperating in repeated interactions: Social value orientations, fuzzy traces, reciprocity, and activity bias. Decision, 4, 102–122. 10.1037/dec0000057
(2016). Social value induction and cooperation in the Centipede game. PLoS ONE, 11,
(e0152352 . 10.1371/journal.pone.01523522003). Equilibrium play and adaptive learning in a three-person Centipede game. Games and Economic Behavior, 43, 239–265. 10.1016/S0899-8256(03)00009-5
(1981). Games of perfect information, predatory pricing and chain store paradox. Journal of Economic Theory, 25, 92–100. 10.1016/0022-0531(81)90018-10531(81)900181
(1994). Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
(2001). Keiretsu and relationship-specific investment: A barrier to trade? International Economic Review, 42, 871–901. 10.1111/1468-2354.00138,
(1999). An unsupported common view: Comparing Japan and the U.S. on individualism/collectivism. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 2, 311–341. 10.1111/1467-839X.00043
(1997). Individualism, collectivism, and entrepreneurship: A framework for international comparative research. Journal of Business Venturing, 12, 367–384. 10.1016/S0883-9026(97)81199-8
(1995). Individualism and collectivism. Boulder, CO: Westview.
(2002). The myth of individualism-collectivism: A critical review. The Journal of Social Psychology, 142, 461–480. 10.1080/00224540209603912
(2014). Toward a better understanding of self-construal theory: An agency view of the processes of self-construal. Review of General Psychology, 18, 101–114. 10.1037/gpr0000003
(2005). Dynamic influences of culture on cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma. Psychological Science, 16, 429–434.
(1988a). Exit from the group and in individualistic solution to the free rider problem in the United States and Japan. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 24, 530–542. 10.1016/0022-1031(88)90051-0
(1988b). The provision of a sanctioning system in the United States and Japan. Social Psychology Quarterly, 51, 265–271. 10.2307/2786924
(2013). Is behavioral pro-sociality game-specific? Pro-social preference and expectations of pro-sociality. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 120, 260–271. 10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.06.002
(1994). Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 129–166. 10.1007/BF02249397
(