Preferences and beliefs in intergroup conflict

Participation in intergroup conflict is often framed as a matter of ‘in-group love’ or ‘out-group hate’. Indeed, theoretical accounts including social identity theory and parochial altruism suggest that such group-based preferences are inextricably linked. According to this view, individuals engage in intergroup conflict, including harmful behaviour towards out-group members, in order to improve the relative standing of their in-group. However, individuals may also engage in intergroup conflict to reciprocate beneficial behaviour from their in-group members or harmful behaviour from out-group members. We elicited both preferences towards in-group and out- group members and beliefs about in-group and out-group members’ behaviours prior to playing an experimental conflict game with natural groups (N = 973). In this game, individuals could engage in costly behaviour to either benefit their in-group (without consequences to the out-group) or to both benefit their in-group and harm the out-group. In this setting, both preferences and beliefs contributed to explaining in-group beneficial and out-group harming behaviour. However, beliefs played an overall stronger role than preferences in explaining behaviour. This suggests that participation in intergroup conflict is better explained by positive and negative reciprocity than purely by group-based preferences.

“Eyes for eyes, teeth for teeth”: positive and negative reciprocity in NPOs

PurposeManagement scholars investigated the motivational aspects of volunteers, mainly focusing on their positive reciprocity – individuals feel obligated to reciprocate whenever they receive benefits from others – but neglected the possible role of negative reciprocity, the tendency to retaliate in case of mistreatments. Based on motivational functions theory and the norm of reciprocity, this paper proposes a framework assessing other-oriented and self-oriented motives as the main antecedents of volunteers’ intention to stay in non-profit organizations (NPOs).Design/methodology/approachCovariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and the PROCESS macro were used to empirically validate and test the hypothesized conceptual model on a sample of 379 volunteers actively involved in Italian NPOs.FindingsPositive reciprocity partially mediated the relationships between volunteers’ other-oriented motives and self-oriented motives and their intention to stay. Instead, negative reciprocity fully mediated the relationship between self-oriented motives and intention to stay but not the relationship between other-oriented motives and intention to stay.Practical implicationsManagers and marketers of NPOs should pay more attention to volunteers’ attitudinal and behavioral signals to encourage within-organization positive reciprocal attitudes and discourage negative reciprocal attitudes. This represents a strategic lever to prevent volunteers from quitting the organization – which is one of the most critical challenges for NPOs’ management – and improve their intention to stay.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies that simultaneously investigate the mediating role of both positive and negative reciprocity of volunteers actively involved in NPOs. Moreover, the constructs of other-oriented and self-oriented motivations are statistically validated as two separate psychological dimensions impacting on volunteers’ turnover. Finally, the study has been conducted in the Region of Tuscany (Italy) which, despite its centuries-old tradition of volunteerism, has received scant attention by non-profit scholars.

How (un-)informative are experiments with “standard subjects” for other social groups? – The case of agricultural students and farmers

This paper analyzes whether there is a gap between agricultural students’ and non-students’ (farmers’) behaviors in economic experiments which are often used to measure risk aversion, impatience, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, altruism, and trust. A further question is whether monetary incentives matter in this respect. We use the Holt and Laury procedure (2002) to elicit risk aversion, the procedure according to Laury et al. (2012) to measure impatience, a gift exchange game (Charness et al. 2004) to capture positive reciprocity, an ultimatum bargaining game (Güth et al. 1982) to assess negative reciprocity, a dictator experiment (Engel 2011) to gauge altruism, and a trust game (Kosfeld et al. 2005) to assess trust in others. We find no differences between agricultural students and farmers in their risk aversion, whereas the latter are fund to be considerably more impatient than the former. Positive and negative reciprocity is slightly more pronounced with farmers. Findings regarding altruism in the two groups are mixed and trust is somewhat more pronounced with farmers. The paper challenges approaches that assume that students can be used as standard experimental subjects whose behaviors can be generalized towards other populations.

Religion and prosociality across the globe

In this paper we analyze newly available, globally representative data on preferences and world religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism). We find that individuals who report believing in such religions also exhibit more prosocial preferences, as measured by their levels of positive reciprocity, altruism and trust. We further document heterogeneous patterns of negative reciprocity and punishment across world religions. The association between religion and prosocial preferences is stronger in more populous societies and weaker in countries with better institutions. The interactive results between these variables point towards a substitution effect between religious and secular institutions, when it comes to prosocial preferences.

Understanding the emotional mechanics of knowledge hiding and trust corrosion

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This conceptual paper clarifies how employee knowledge hiding (KH) arises, so as to mitigate its damage to organizational cultures. The results indicate that KH causes damage both to individual colleagues and to the organization itself. Six categories of events that stimulated KH were situational unintentional KH, competitive motive-based hiding, controlled hiding due to clinging to a sense of knowledge ownership, victimized hiding arising from abuse and hostility, and favored hiding fueled by shared identities and norms. Furthermore the authors identify that the risk of KH elevates in the scenarios of negative reciprocity, perceived disengagement, and influenced disengagement. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

'I Want to Give Something Back': Social Support and Reciprocity in the Lives of Young Refugees

This article analyzes the support relationships of 10 asylum-seeking young people who fled to Germany between 2010 and 2015. It highlights their wish for reciprocity as a need in their country of destination and expands upon Sahlin’s typology of reciprocal relationships (generalized, balanced, and negative reciprocity) by the type of “refused reciprocity.” “Refused reciprocity” occurs when people are keen to reciprocate for support they have received, but they live in environments that restrict their agency. The article argues that participation means not only provision of support, but creation of opportunities for people to experience themselves as self-effective actors. They become self-effective when they can cope successfully with new and difficult situations on their own.

Acute tryptophan depletion in healthy subjects increases preferences for negative reciprocity

Reciprocity motivates to reward those who are kind (= positive reciprocity) and to punish those who are unkind (= negative reciprocity). The neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) modulates human behavior in numerous social situations, such as retaliation in response to perceived unfairness. In a placebo-controlled study, we used acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) to investigate the influence of available serotonin on choice behavior and reciprocity in the Hawk-Dove game. This game illustrates a conflict situation and incorporates two potential strategies: the cooperative Dove strategy and the uncooperative, more aggressive Hawk strategy. After strategic choices, we elicited the subjects’ expectations (= beliefs) regarding the opponent’s choices and controlled for risk preferences and current mood. We defined strategy choices as negative reciprocity when the participants opted for Hawk in response to an expected Hawk. We hypothesized that the ATD-induced reduction of 5-HT availability would increase participants’ preferences for negative reciprocity. Generalized estimating equations reveal no significant main effect of ATD on assessed belief, mood, or risk attitude. But assessment of ATD’s marginal effects over beliefs suggests that ATD significantly increases the tendency for negative reciprocity, whereas positive reciprocity (Dove in response to an expected Dove) is unaffected. We could therefore demonstrate that 5-HT availability mediates (negative) reciprocal behavior in social decision-making.

Preferences and Tourism Development under Uncertainty: An Empirical Study

Using the Global Preferences Survey dataset, this paper examines the effects of six measures of preferences (altruism, negative reciprocity, patience, positive reciprocity, risk-taking, and trust) on the per capita international tourist arrivals and the per capita incoming tourist receipts. The data focus on 74 countries for the period from 1995 to 2019. The paper finds that citizens’ trust is positively related to tourism development, and its impact is statistically significant. This evidence indicates that a country with a higher level of trust in other nations’ people attracts more tourists and generates higher tourism receipts.