Analyzing a Journal Article on Dynamic Influences of Culture on Cooperation in the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Final Paper Instructions
Wong, R. Y. M., & Hong, Y. Y. (2005). Dynamic influences of culture on cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma. Psychological science, 16(6), 429-434
For the final paper, you should address all of the following points and answer the questions listed below:
1. Summarize the paper (ALL questions must be answered)
o What were the hypotheses?
o What methods did the author(s) use?
o What were the results?
o What did the author(s) conclude?
2. Comment on the article’s theories/methods (TWO questions must be answered)
o Did the authors provide any alternative explanations and if so, what were they?
o Did you have any questions/comments about the methods that were used?
o What improvements to the methods would you recommend in order to exclude any possible confounding factors?
3. Come up with relevant new ideas that could be further explored (THREE questions must be answered)
o What could be further investigated along this line of research?
o Were there any variables that were excluded in the current study that could/should be included in the future?
o Would the study yield different results if it was conducted on a different population?
o Could a different method have been used in the current study? Would the alternative method yield different results?
Please answer the questions in your own words. Direct extraction of information from the journal article must be cited in proper APA format (you can use Purdue OWL online for instructions on how to do this; both in-text citations and reference page are required ONLY if you choose to include citations). If you do not do this, it will be considered plagiarism.
When writing this paper, you should try your best to describe the journal article you chose in your own words in order to indicate proper understanding of the article. Too much direct reference to the original paper (with minimal original wording) may lead to point deduction, as it is not from you and won’t be considered as your work.
You should specify which article you choose by putting the title of the article on top of your final paper.
Running head: CULTURE ON COOPERATION IN PRISONER'S DILEMMA1
“Dynamic Influences of Culture on Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma”: A Critique
Student Name
College/University Affiliation
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“Dynamic Influences of Culture on Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma”: A Critique 1. Summary
In “Dynamic Influences of Culture on Cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma” Wong and Hong (2005) propose a new assumption about culture priming of select cultural groups namely, Chinese Americans vis-à-vis Americans. In contrast to sweeping behavioral patterns
across situations, Wong and Hong hypothesize that, offered specific cooperation/defection situa-tions, Chinese-American participants, exhibiting bicultural knowledge repertoires (i.e. Chinese and American), “ would be more likely to cooperate with friends when their Chinese cultural knowledge was activated than when their American cultural knowledge was activated,” whilst such “difference would disappear when they interacted with strangers” (p. 430). Put differently, cultural priming, triggered in certain situations yet not in all situations, is more likely to generate certain behaviors, or behavioral patterns of cooperation among Chinese-American participants, particularly during interactions with friends and with higher expectations for cooperation if given a choice, compared to American participants.
The study adopts a fairly straightforward methodology. Essentially, 171 participants (67 males and 104 females) are, first, culturally primed – i.e. exposed to Chinese and American cul-tural icons – in order to trigger, or activate, internalized cultural repertoires and, next, partici-pants are introduced into Prisoner's Dilemma game where players are given an option to choose between Strategy A (cooperation and hence higher joint outcome) and Strategy B (defection and hence higher individual outcome). To isolate any peer pressure to act in a certain way, study au-thors announce overall score of all five rounds, instead for each round, so players are unable to figure out which strategy a particular participant has chosen in any given round. The expectations
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as well as motivation to opt for one strategy are measured using a 1-8 scale (1: very confident that the partner has chosen Strategy B; and 8: very confident that the partner has chosen Strategy A) (p. 431).
Using a logit regression, mean percentage of cooperation (vs. defection) in six Prime Context conditions shows Prime X Context analysis variance is significant for cooperation, ex-pectations and motivation for Chinese-American participants when partners are friends and non-differential for Chinese-American and American participants when partners are strangers.
The results or findings, conclude study authors, confirm initial hypothesis: “Chinese culture primes activated more cooperation with friends than did American culture primes, where-as there was no systematic effect of prime on cooperation with strangers” (p. 433). More general-ly, study findings have far-reaching implications for group collaboration dynamics informed by cultural priming activities including, for instance, motivations to maximize joint profit vis-à-vis individual profit.
2. Questions/Comments
The authors do not, in fact, offer any alternatives to provided explanations. That is, in examining whether cultural priming influences behavioral patterns of Chinese-Americans in cur-rent study, exhibiting more cooperation among (friend) partners in particular, study authors at-tribute identified behaviors to assumed propensity among Chinese-Americans – and, for that matter, Chinese – participants to cooperate and emphasize group harmony and joint gain.
For methodology, a number of questions and comments arise. Primarily, a Chinese drag-on and a U.S. flag are shown to participants as cultural icons. True, a dragon and a U.S. flag may elicit some cultural behaviors once displayed. There are, however, one strongly believes, much
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subtler cultural icons which, if used, might problematize a straightforward assumption of a cer-tain cultural behavior once participants are exposed to such icons, For instance, showing, say, “We Want you” drafting poster could elicit non-cooperative behaviors among Chinese-American and American participants. The favorability of – or, rather, an assumption of a more favorable – cultural icon precludes different possibilities current study could have. The assumption of coop-eration among Chinese-American participants is, moreover, flawed. If anything, a Prisoner's Dilemma game is used in current study under a general assumption of an all-cooperation option by Chinese-American participants. This is, in fact, an interesting contradiction made more ironic given an earlier review justifying current study as one making more specific sweeping general-izations about “behavioral tendencies across situations” (p. 430). That is, in assuming an all-co-operation option by Chinese-American participants, vis-à-vis a similar all-defection behavior by Americans, in situations involving a choice between cooperation and defection among friends and strangers, study authors make a sweeping generalization which may not account for individ-ual differences and, perhaps more importantly, changes in cultural dynamics informing how – and why – a certain cultural group chooses to act in one way to an exclusive rejection of one or more choices. The monetary reward offered to participants, equivalent t...