A society to punish a good deed: A socio-ecological approach to the inhibition of "over-cooperation"

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530781
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Social psychology
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: YUKI Masaki 北海道大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (50301859)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 協力 / 社会生態 / 文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project aimed to test the hypotheses that in social environments where there is less, as opposed to more, freedom in group membership choice ("low relational mobility"), 1) people should evaluate "over-cooperators" (those who are prominently cooperative than others) more negatively, and, therefore, 2) they will more likely conceal it when they over-cooperate. Although some findings from the total of six cross-cultural and experimental studies were consistent with the hypotheses and gave new insights, others, especially the ones obtained in the studies conducted in the final year, were completely opposite to the predictions, and the reasons are unknown. This strongly suggests that there are unidentified issues regarding the current theory, and calls for future investigation.

Free Research Field

社会心理学・文化心理学