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

耐心和合作精神在决定一个社会的集体福祉水平方面发挥着关键作用，但科学家们并不知道是什么决定了这些特征，也不知道它们之间到底是如何联系的。西方本科生的一些初步实验室研究表明，耐心和合作精神在个体层面上是相关的。然而，这种关联可能仅限于受过西方大学培训的学生。此外，这可能是用于评估耐心和合作性的方法论的人工制品，或者耐心和合作性之间的明显关系可能是由于与第三个变量的相关性，例如信任。在这篇博士论文改进资助研究中，共同PI将进行研究，以探索耐心/合作性相关性的共性和起源。为了解决“概括性”问题，这项研究将涉及对越南北部和南部(即非西方)成年人的广泛样本的耐心和合作能力的研究。更广泛的评估方法和人口统计数据的收集将有助于解决这种相关性是真实的还是似是而非的问题。通过考察越南“社会资本”的一些关键成分，这项研究的发现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.