Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP11131
Authors: Dennis J. Snower; Steven Bosworth; Tania Singer
Abstract: This paper examines the reflexive interplay between individual decisions and social forces to analyze the evolution of cooperation in the presence of "multi-directedness", whereby people's preferences depend on their psychological motives. People have access to multiple, discrete motives. Different motives may be activated by different social settings. Inter-individual differences in dispositional types affect the responsiveness of people's motives to their social settings. The evolution of these dispositional types is driven by changes in the frequencies of social settings. In this context, economic policies can influence economic decisions not merely by modifying incentives operating through given preferences, but also by influencing people's motives (thereby changing their preferences) and by changing the distribution of dispositional types in the population (thereby changing their motivational responsiveness to social settings).
Keywords: motivation; reflexivity; cooperation; social dilemma; endogenous preferences; dispositions
JEL Codes: A13; C72; D01; D03; D62; D64
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| social settings (Z13) | cooperative behavior (C71) |
| individual traits (Z13) | motives (L21) |
| motives (L21) | preferences (D11) |
| social settings (Z13) | motives (L21) |
| motives (L21) | cooperative behavior (C71) |
| changes in social settings (Z13) | distribution of dispositional types (C46) |
| distribution of dispositional types (C46) | motivational responsiveness (D91) |
| economic policies (E69) | social settings (Z13) |