The Herdsman and the Sheep, Mouton, or Kivsa? The Influence of Group Culture on Cooperation in Social Dilemmas

Abstract

This chapter suggests that it is important to incorporate the concept of culture into both the theoretical frameworks and the empirical research on cooperation in social dilemmas. It proposes a broader interpretation of the appropriateness framework (March, 1994) in decision making in social dilemmas (Messick, 1999; Weber, Kopelman, and Messick, 2004) that includes group culture. It does not diminish the contribution of the appropriateness framework that teases apart the identity from recognition of the situation and the relevant rules, but rather offers a model that also encompasses group culture as a distinct fourth construct. Thus, when faced with the choice to cooperate or defect, rather than being guided strictly by rational choice or expected utility models, a decision-maker may be best guided by the question: “what does a person like me do in a situation like this given this group culture?”