Social Dilemmas as Exchange Dilemmas

We develop a new paradigm to study social dilemmas, called exchange dilemmas. Exchange dilemmas arise from externalities of exchanges with third parties, and many real-life social dilemmas are more accurately modeled as exchange dilemmas rather than prisoner's dilemmas. Bulding on focusing and framing research we predict that defection is omnipresent in exchange dilemmas, which is corroborated in to very different experiments. Our results suggest that the fundamental problem of cooperation in many real-life social dilemmas may be more severe and harder to solve than suggested by traditional prisoner's dilemma research, due to the presence of third parties. Directions for future research are suggested, focusing on relations with third parties

Comparing the Slider Measure of Social Value Orientation with Its Main Alternatives

The Slider Measure of social value orientation (SVO) was introduced as an improvement from existing measures. We conduct an independent assessment of its suitability compared with the Ring Measure and the Triple Dominance Measure. Using a student sample, we assess the measures' test-retest reliability (N = 88; using a longer time interval than previous studies) and sensitivity to random responses. Analyses pertaining to convergent validity, criterion validity, and the advantages of a continuous over a discrete measure are presented in the online appendix. Compared with alternatives, the Slider Measure has the highest test-retest reliability. However, it classifies random responses in an unbalanced way, assigning the vast majority of random responses to cooperative and individualistic, rather than altruistic and competitive, orientations. For all three measures, we propose improved ways of weeding out inconsistent responses.</p

A social network perspective on involvement in community energy initiatives:The role of direct and extended social ties to initiators

This study investigates the role of social networks in influencing individuals' decision whether to participate in a community energy initiative (CEI), by incorporating different types of social contact between community members and CEI initiators. Engagement of community members is crucial for the success of a CEI and thus a key question is how the initiators can reach community members and stimulate involvement. By analyzing the community's social network we investigate how the structure of social ties between community members and initiators influences participation. We take both existence and number of strong and weak direct personal ties into account. In addition, we investigate the role of extended ties community members have to initiators, operationalized via indirect links through co-memberships of local associations. Data were obtained from eight communities in the Netherlands where a CEI was recently initiated (N = 467 respondents). Our results demonstrate that community members' willingness to participate in a CEI is positively associated with direct ties to the initiators, both weak and strong, but there is no association with extended ties to initiators. Possible strategies of how initiators might best utilize their social ties are discussed