To compete or to cooperate? Values' impact on perception and action in social dilemma games

Two studies investigated how values affect competitive versus cooperative behavior. Each Study presented a new social-dilemma game, in which participants' interpretations of the dilemma (i.e., their subjective payoff matrix)—and consequently the dominant (i.e., rational) behavioral choice—depended on their values. The Paired Charity Game (Study 1) framed the situation in terms of cooperation. As hypothesized, contribution correlated positively with universalism and benevolence values that reflect concern for others and negatively with power, achievement, and hedonism values that promote self-interests. Furthermore, values, but not traits, predicted the participants' contribution. The Group Charity Game (Study 2) was designed to frame the situation in terms of competition. As hypothesized, contribution correlated positively with emphasizing benevolence over power values. Moreover, the impact of values was stronger when they were rendered accessible, indicating a causal influence of values on behavior. Furthermore, when their value hierarchy was rendered accessible, participants explained their choices in terms of those values that were (a) important to them and (b) relevant to the situation. The findings thus point to the mechanism through which accessible values affect behavior. Taken together, the studies promote our understanding of the value–behavior relationships, by highlighting the impact of values on perception. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79435/1/729_ftp.pd

“Ingroup Love" and “Outgroup Hate" as Motives for Individual Participation in Intergroup Conflict: A New Game Paradigm

What motivates individual self-sacrificial behavior in intergroup conflicts? Is it the altruistic desire to help the ingroup or the aggressive drive to hurt the outgroup? This paper introduces a new game paradigm, the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma – Maximizing Difference (IPD-MD) game, designed specifically to distinguish between these two motives. The game involves two groups. Each group member is given a monetary endowment and can decide how much of it to contribute. Contribution can be made to either of two pools, one which benefits the ingroup at a personal cost, and another which, in addition, harms the outgroup. An experiment demonstrated that contributions in the IPD-MD game are made almost exclusively to the cooperative within-group pool. Moreover, pre-play intragroup communication increases intragroup cooperation but not intergroup competition. These results are compared with those observed in the Intergroup Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) game, where group members' contributions are restricted to the competitive between-group pool.

Personal values in human life

The construct of values is central to many fields in the social sciences and humanities. The last two decades have seen a growing body of psychological research that investigates the content, structure and consequences of personal values in many cultures. Taking a cross-cultural perspective we review, organize and integrate research on personal values, and point to some of the main findings that this research has yielded. Personal values are subjective in nature, and reflect what people think and state about themselves. Consequently, both researchers and laymen sometimes question the usefulness of personal values in influencing action. Yet, self-reported values predict a large variety of attitudes, preferences and overt behaviours. Individuals act in ways that allow them to express their important values and attain the goals underlying them. Thus, understanding personal values means understanding human behaviour

Personal Value Priorities of Economists

Economists often play crucial roles in designing and implementing public policies; thus it is of importance to better understand the values that underlie their decisions. We explore the value hierarchies of economists in four studies: The first two studies examine whether value differences exist between students of economics and other social sciences students. The final two studies examine how value priorities important to economics students relate to identification with the organization and work orientation. Taken together, our findings indicate that economists have a distinctive pattern of value priorities that may affect their work-related perceptions and attitudes and hence impact their policy decisions and recommendations.A13; economists; value priorities

Non-erythroid activities of erythropoietin: Functional effects on murine dendritic cells.

Erythropoietin (EPO) is the main hormone that promotes proliferation and differentiation of erythroid progenitor cells via binding to its surface receptor (EPO-R). Recent studies suggest that this hormone may affect also other cell types, besides the red blood cell lineage. We have previously demonstrated that the immune system is a target of EPO; however, the direct target cells of EPO, as well as the molecular mechanisms underlying its role as an immunomodulator, are unknown. Here we present evidence for functional effects of EPO on dendritic cells (DCs), which are known to initiate the immune response. In-vivo experiments in EPO-injected mice and in transgenic mice over-expressing human EPO showed an increased splenic DC population with a higher cell surface expression of CD80 and CD86. Further analysis based on mouse models, showed that DCs derived in-vitro from bone marrow (BM-DCs) express EPO-R mRNA. In-vitro stimulation of these DCs with recombinant human EPO enhanced viability, upregulated CD80, CD86 and MHC class II and augmented the secretion of IL-12. Biochemical analysis of EPO mediated signaling in the BM-DCs showed activation of the AKT, MAPK and NF-kappaB pathways. EPO stimulation of the BM-DCs led to Tyr-phosphorylation of STAT3. The inability to detect EPO mediated activation of STAT5 in the BM-DCs, suggests that in DCs, STAT3 may play a more important role than STAT5 in EPO-R signaling. Taken together, our data support the premise that DCs are direct targets of EPO, thereby providing an insight to the immunomodulatory functions of EPO