Which Hat to Wear? Impact of Natural Identities on Coordination and Cooperation

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Yan Chen, University of Michigan; Sherry Xin Li, University of Texas at Dallas; Tracy Xiao Liu, Tsinghua University; Margaret Shih, UCLA

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Chen et al GEB 2014.pdf application/pdf 2.7 MB 08/29/2020 09:47:PM
README.pdf application/pdf 85.1 KB 08/29/2020 09:47:PM
analysis_A.do text/x-stata-syntax 33.9 KB 08/29/2020 08:04:PM
analysis_B.do text/x-stata-syntax 23.3 KB 08/29/2020 09:47:PM
analysis_C.do text/x-stata-syntax 2.3 KB 08/29/2020 07:59:PM
analysis_D.do text/x-stata-syntax 5.5 KB 08/29/2020 08:00:PM
analysis_E.do text/x-stata-syntax 4.6 KB 08/29/2020 08:01:PM
cooperation_experiment.dta application/x-stata 295.3 KB 01/10/2014 06:50:PM
coordination_experiment.dta application/x-stata 282.6 KB 08/29/2020 09:47:PM

Project Citation: 

Chen, Yan, Li, Sherry Xin, Liu, Tracy Xiao, and Shih, Margaret. Which Hat to Wear? Impact of Natural Identities on Coordination and Cooperation. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-08-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/E120862V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary 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.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources National Science Foundation (SES0720943)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms social identity; diversity; prisoner’s dilemma; minimum-effort game; experiment
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Michigan, USA
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 5/2008 – 7/2012
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 5/2008 – 7/2008; 6/2012 – 7/2012
Universe:  View help for Universe Students from the two ethnic groups, Caucasians and Asians, at University of Michigan participated in the lab experiments.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) experimental data


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V1 [2020-08-30]

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