Political Accountability and Democratic Institutions: An Experimental Assessment

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Gabriel Castillo ◽  
John Hamman
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Public Goods Game ◽  
Experimental Assessment ◽  
Costly Punishment ◽  
Group Outcomes ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Group Member

Abstract We study the extent to which centralized democratic institutions enhance collective action under political accountability. In a public goods game with costly punishment, we vary the appointment of one group member to enforce punishment. Specifically, we compare democratically elected punishers to those appointed exogenously, under both single- and multiple-selection environments. We find that democratically appointed sanctioning authority has muted effects on group outcomes; yet, they contribute as much as other group members when facing repeated elections, as opposed to the ones in single selection or exogenously appointed. One important feature of modern governance to discipline authorities is political accountability; when in place, it offers different incentives, and in particular, we observe a responsibility effect reflected in higher contribution behavior. Important in our study results, this effect rises only under a democracy.

scholarly journals Cooperation and competition between pair and multi-player social games in spatial populations

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Szolnoki ◽  
Xiaojie Chen
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Evolutionary Game Theory ◽  
Evolutionary Game ◽  
Pair Interaction ◽  
Public Goods Game ◽  
Point Interactions ◽  
Social Games ◽  
The Public ◽  
Specific Parameter ◽  
Group Members

AbstractThe conflict between individual and collective interests is in the heart of every social dilemmas established by evolutionary game theory. We cannot avoid these conflicts but sometimes we may choose which interaction framework to use as a battlefield. For instance some people like to be part of a larger group while other persons prefer to interact in a more personalized, individual way. Both attitudes can be formulated via appropriately chosen traditional games. In particular, the prisoner’s dilemma game is based on pair interaction while the public goods game represents multi-point interactions of group members. To reveal the possible advantage of a certain attitude we extend these models by allowing players not simply to change their strategies but also let them to vary their attitudes for a higher individual income. We show that both attitudes could be the winner at a specific parameter value. Interestingly, however, the subtle interplay between different states may result in a counterintuitive evolutionary outcome where the increase of the multiplication factor of public goods game drives the population to a fully defector state. We point out that the accompanying pattern formation can only be understood via the multipoint or multi-player interactions of different microscopic states where the vicinity of a particular state may influence the relation of two other competitors.

scholarly journals Whites for racial justice: How contact with Black Americans predicts support for collective action among White Americans

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 893-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hema Preya Selvanathan ◽  
Pirathat Techakesari ◽  
Linda R. Tropp ◽  
Fiona Kate Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Group Efficacy ◽  
Total N ◽  
Group Members ◽  
White Guilt

Advantaged group members have an important role to play in creating social change, and intergroup contact has tremendous implications in shaping intergroup relations. However, little research has examined how intergroup contact predicts advantaged group members’ inclinations toward collective action to support the interests of disadvantaged groups. The present research investigates how contact with Black Americans shapes White Americans’ willingness to engage in collective action for racial justice and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Three studies of White Americans (total N = 821) consistently reveal that positive contact with Black Americans predicts greater support for collective action through a sequential process of fostering greater feelings of empathy for Black Americans and anger over injustice. These findings hold even when taking into account other relevant psychological factors (i.e., White guilt and identification, negative contact, group efficacy, and moral convictions). The present research contributes to our understanding of how advantaged group members come to engage in social change efforts.

scholarly journals Consensus among group members’ shared leadership ratings polarizes group performance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioku Tomohiro
Keyword(s):  
Shared Leadership ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Leadership Behavior ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Hierarchical Multiple Regression ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

We examined whether the extent of perceived variability (i.e., consensus) among group members’ shared leadership ratings polarize group performances. Through using data from 39 classes in school settings, we explored the relationship between students’ shared leadership behavior and group performance as moderated by the extent of variability among group members’ shared leadership ratings. Study results, based on hierarchical multiple regression analyses, were consistent with the hypothesized conceptual scheme of moderation in that the slope of the relationship between shared leadership and group performance was stronger (and positive) for classes with high consensus than ones with low consensus. This indicates consensus among group members’ shared leadership ratings polarizing group performance.

scholarly journals Neural precursors of future liking and affective reciprocity

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (17) ◽  
pp. 4375-4380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Zerubavel ◽  
Mark Anthony Hoffman ◽  
Adam Reich ◽  
Kevin N. Ochsner ◽  
Peter Bearman
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Neural Data ◽  
Social Network Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interaction Partners ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Flexible Framework ◽  
Predictive Strength ◽  
Group Member

Why do certain group members end up liking each other more than others? How does affective reciprocity arise in human groups? The prediction of interpersonal sentiment has been a long-standing pursuit in the social sciences. We combined fMRI and longitudinal social network data to test whether newly acquainted group members’ reward-related neural responses to images of one another’s faces predict their future interpersonal sentiment, even many months later. Specifically, we analyze associations between relationship-specific valuation activity and relationship-specific future liking. We found that one’s own future (T2) liking of a particular group member is predicted jointly by actor’s initial (T1) neural valuation of partner and by that partner’s initial (T1) neural valuation of actor. These actor and partner effects exhibited equivalent predictive strength and were robust when statistically controlling for each other, both individuals’ initial liking, and other potential drivers of liking. Behavioral findings indicated that liking was initially unreciprocated at T1 yet became strongly reciprocated by T2. The emergence of affective reciprocity was partly explained by the reciprocal pathways linking dyad members’ T1 neural data both to their own and to each other’s T2 liking outcomes. These findings elucidate interpersonal brain mechanisms that define how we ultimately end up liking particular interaction partners, how group members’ initially idiosyncratic sentiments become reciprocated, and more broadly, how dyads evolve. This study advances a flexible framework for researching the neural foundations of interpersonal sentiments and social relations that—conceptually, methodologically, and statistically—emphasizes group members’ neural interdependence.

scholarly journals Relative deprivation and intergroup competition

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 685-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Halevy ◽  
Eileen Y. Chou ◽  
Taya R. Cohen ◽  
Gary Bornstein
Keyword(s):  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Prisoner’S Dilemma ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Destructive Behavior ◽  
Intergroup Competition ◽  
Group Outcomes ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Collective Efficiency ◽  
Individual Participation

Two experiments utilized a new experimental paradigm—the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma— Maximizing Difference (IPD-MD) game—to study how relative deprivation at the group level affects intergroup competition. The IPD-MD game enables group members to make a costly contribution to either a within-group pool that benefits fellow ingroup members, or a between-group pool, which, in addition, harms outgroup members. We found that when group members were put in a disadvantaged position, either by previous actions of the outgroup (Experiment 1) or by random misfortune (Experiment 2), they contributed substantially more to the competitive between-group pool. This destructive behavior both minimized inequality between the groups and reduced collective efficiency. Our results underscore the conditions that lead group members to care about relative (rather than absolute) group outcomes and highlight the need to differentiate between the motivation to get ahead and the motivation not to fall behind: the latter, it appears, is what motivates individual participation in destructive intergroup competition.

Perverting Activism

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Bertolotti ◽  
Emanuele Bardone ◽  
Lorenzo Magnani
Keyword(s):  
Moral Hazard ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Political Accountability ◽  
Democratic Institutions ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Impact

This paper analyzes the impact of new technologies on a range of practices related to activism. The first section shows how the functioning of democratic institutions can be impaired by scarce political accountability connected with the emergence of moral hazard; the second section displays how cyberactivism can improve the transparency of political dynamics; in the last section the authors turn specifically to cyberactivism and isolate its flaws and some of the most pernicious and self-defeating effects.

Rotating group representatives and group members’ requests in repeated public goods game

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (40) ◽  
pp. 4351-4365
Author(s):  
Zuohui Zuo ◽  
Yan Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Public Goods Game ◽  
Group Members

scholarly journals The Isolated Choice Effect and Its Implications for Gender Diversity in Organizations

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (6) ◽  
pp. 2752-2761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward H. Chang ◽  
Erika L. Kirgios ◽  
Aneesh Rai ◽  
Katherine L. Milkman
Keyword(s):  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Gender Diversity ◽  
Multiple Group ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
Selection Decisions ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Groups And Teams ◽  
Group Diversity ◽  
Diverse Groups ◽  
Group Member

We highlight a feature of personnel selection decisions that can influence the gender diversity of groups and teams. Specifically, we show that people are less likely to choose candidates whose gender would increase group diversity when making personnel selections in isolation (i.e., when they are responsible for selecting a single group member) than when making collections of choices (i.e., when they are responsible for selecting multiple group members). We call this the isolated choice effect. Across six preregistered experiments (n = 3,509), we demonstrate that the isolated choice effect has important consequences for group diversity. When making sets of hiring and selection decisions (as opposed to making a single hire), people construct more gender-diverse groups. Mediation and moderation studies suggest that people do not attend as much to diversity when making isolated selection choices, which drives this effect. This paper was accepted by Yuval Rottenstreich, decision analysis.

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