Which hat to wear? Impact of natural identities on coordination and cooperation

B-Tier
Journal: Games and Economic Behavior
Year: 2014
Volume: 84
Issue: C
Pages: 58-86

Authors (4)

Chen, Yan (not in RePEc) Li, Sherry Xin (University of Arkansas) Liu, Tracy Xiao (Tsinghua University) Shih, Margaret (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

As the workforce becomes increasingly diverse, motivating individuals from different backgrounds to work together effectively is a major challenge facing organizations. In an experiment conducted at a large public university in the United States, we manipulate the salience of participants' multidimensional natural identities and investigate the effects of identity on coordination and cooperation in a series of minimum-effort and prisoner's dilemma games. By priming a fragmenting (ethnic) identity, we find that, compared to the control, participants are significantly less likely to choose high effort in the minimum-effort games, leading to less efficient coordination. In comparison, priming a common organization (school) identity significantly increases the choice of a rational joint payoff maximizing strategy in a prisoner's dilemma game.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:gamebe:v:84:y:2014:i:c:p:58-86
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-25