Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Are Patient People More Cooperative? A Study of the Relationship between Time Preferences and Cooperation in Vietnam

耐心和合作在决定一个社会的集体幸福水平方面发挥着关键作用，然而科学家们不知道是什么决定了这些特征，也不知道它们之间究竟有多大的关系。一些在西方大学生中进行的初步实验室研究表明，耐心和合作在个体水平上是相关的。然而，这种相关性可能只适用于受过西方大学教育的学生。此外，它可能是用于评估耐心和合作的方法的人工产物，或者耐心和合作之间的明显关系可能是由于与第三个变量（如信任）的相关性。在本次博士论文改进基金研究中，co PI将开展研究，探讨耐心/合作相关的普遍性和起源。为了解决“普遍性”问题，这项研究将包括研究越南北部和南部（即非西方）成年人的耐心和合作精神。更广泛的评估方法和人口统计数据的收集将有助于确定这种相关性是真实的还是似是而非的。通过研究越南“社会资本”的一些关键成分，本研究的结果将对参与越南发展项目的政府和非政府机构有用。

Patience and cooperativeness play critical roles in determining a society's level of collective wellbeing, yet scientists do not know what determines these traits or how exactly they are related to one another. Some preliminary laboratory research among Western undergraduate students suggests that patience and cooperativeness are correlated at the individual level. However, this correlation may be specific to Western university-trained students. Moreover, it may be an artifact of the methodology used to assess patience and cooperativeness or the apparent relationship between patience and cooperativeness may be due to a correlation with a third variable, such as trust.In this Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant research, the co PI will conduct studies to explore the generality and origins of the patience / cooperativeness correlation. To address the "generality" question, the research will involve studying patience and cooperativeness among a broad sample of northern and southern Vietnamese (i.e., non-western) adults. More extensive assessment methodology and collection of demographic data will help address whether the correlation is real or specious. Findings from this research will be useful to government and non-government agencies that are involved in development projects in Vietnam, by examining some of the key ingredients of "social capital" in Vietnam.