Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Cooperation plays an essential role in the development and survival of humans. Previous research suggests that experiencing negative emotional events typically decreases cooperation. Yet the research has primarily focused on experiencing negative emotional events alone. People living in a social environment often co-experience negative emotional events with others. Less understood is the impact of co-experiencing the same negative events on interpersonal cooperation. The present research hypothesized that 1) co-experiencing the same negative emotional events (i.e., failure) increases cooperation between co-experiencers compared with experiencing negative emotional events alone; 2) the need to belong mediates the relationship between those co-experiencing negative emotional events and their cooperation. Four experiments were conducted to examine the two hypotheses.In Experiments 1-3, the negative emotional events were manipulated either by failing in a lottery (Experiment 1) or in the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (Experiment 2 and 3), and the cooperation was measured by a public goods game. The results of the three experiments showed that co-experiencing a negative emotional event promoted cooperation between the co-experiencers compared with experiencing the negative emotional event alone. Furthermore, to examine the underlying mechanism of this effect, three possible mediator variables, the need to belong, social bonds, and common in-group identity, were also measured in Experiment 2. The results showed that the need to belong, but not social bonds or common in-group identity, mediated the relationship between co-experiencing a negative emotional event (i.e., failure) and the promoted cooperation. In Experiment 3, the need to belong was manipulated rather than measured to further examine its effect on the increased cooperation between the co-experiencers. The results showed that when the need to belong was satisfied, the participants who co-experienced the negative emotional event did not behave more cooperatively than when they experienced the emotional event alone. Experiment 4 investigated whether people would be more willing to cooperate when they co-experienced the same negative emotional events compared with when they experienced different negative emotional events or when they experienced the negative emotional events alone. The results showed that only the participants who co-experienced the same negative emotional event, but not those who co-experienced a different negative emotional event, were more likely to cooperate than when they experienced the emotional event alone. The implication of the present findings on the formation of small groups and enhancing group cohesion was discussed.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： A large body of research examined the effect of experiencing unfairness on an individual’s unfairness perception. However, the literature primarily focuses on experiencing unfairness at the individual level. A dearth of research investigating the effect of coexperiencing unfairness with others exists. The present study examined the effect of coexperiencing unfairness with another group member on unfairness perception. Three experiments were designed to test two competing hypotheses. The first hypothesis derived from the “reference change” view, which posited that coexperiencing unfairness with other group members would decrease unfairness perception. The second hypothesis derived from group membership research, which posited that coexperiencing unfairness with other group members would increase unfairness perception. In Experiment 1, the participants were assigned to one of three conditions, that is, the experiencing unfairness alone condition (the “alone condition”), coexperiencing unfairness with another individual condition (the “individual coexperience condition”), and the coexperiencing unfairness with another group member condition (the “group coexperience condition”). In the alone condition, the participant acting as the responder was allocated a small amount of money (e.g., RMB 2 out of RMB 10) by the proposer in a two-person ultimatum game. The participant was instructed to decide whether to accept or reject the allocation for her/himself. One proposer and two responders were involved in the two coexperience conditions, in which the two responders were allocated a small amount of money (e.g., each responder received RMB 2 out of RMB 12) by the proposer in a three-person ultimatum game. In other words, the two responders coexperienced unfairness. In contrast to the individual coexperience condition, in which the participants were told to make a decision for themselves, the participants in the group coexperience condition were informed that the two responders formed a group and thus needed to make a decision (i.e., to accept or reject the allocation) for the group. Furthermore, payoff commonality was employed to enhance group membership. Specifically, the participants in the group coexperience condition were told that “if one of you rejects the allocation, then both of you and the proposer will obtain nothing in the trial.” The results of the experiment showed that coexperiencing unfairness with another group member decreased unfairness perception and the rejection rate for the unfair allocation compared with experiencing unfairness alone. In Experiment 2, group membership was manipulated by asking the participants to make a decision for the group in turn. The results duplicated the findings on unfairness perception from Experiment 1. The results also showed that the group coexperience condition decreased the rejection rate for the unfair allocation compared with the alone condition, but the results did not reach statistical significance. In Experiment 3, two group coexperience conditions (i.e., a group of strangers and a group of friends) were examined. The results demonstrated that the participants in both group coexperience conditions reported a lower unfairness perception than those in the alone condition. Similar to Experiment 2, coexperiencing unfairness with either strangers or friends decreased the rejection rate for the unfair allocation, but the results did not reach statistical significance. These results have certain implications for reducing individuals’ unfairness perception in social contexts.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2020-09-12
Abstract： "
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
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