Dave-MArk EJSP goaltransformation
This 1999 European Journal of Social Psychology article (De Cremer & Van Vugt) reports three laboratory experiments testing two mechanisms by which social identification increases cooperation in public goods dilemmas: (1) goal-transformation (identification increases the value of collective outcomes) and (2) goal-amplification (identification increases trust that others will cooperate). Across three studies using the Decomposed Games measure to classify participants as prosocial or proself, the authors manipulated group identification and measured contributions. Results consistently supported the goal-transformation hypothesis: enhancing group identification substantially increased contributions among proself individuals (bringing them to prosocial levels), whereas prosocials were largely unaffected.
Questions this document answers
European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 871–893 (1999).
Received 30 April 1998; Accepted 4 January 1999.
Three experimental studies; consistent support for the goal-transformation hypothesis (identification raises proself contributions).
Study 1: N = 96 (62 male, 33 female, 1 unreported); Study 2: N = 93; Study 3: N = 94.
Nine-item Decomposed Games measure (Messick & McClintock, 1968).