Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Theory of Reward Stability and Group Cooperation

南卡罗莱纳大学的David Melamed Hyomin Park这项研究调查了群体合作奖励的稳定性。公正理论表明，公正评价在群体成员之间产生情绪和行为反应方面起着关键作用。然而，很少有人注意到随着时间的推移，奖励的稳定性在产生其感知、情感和行为后果方面的作用。然而，在现实世界中，大多数人属于一个群体，并反复进行交换关系。为了理解公正评价，重要的是要调查在一段较长时间内奖励稳定性的影响。消极偏见解释了消极事件对人们评价的影响比同样大小的积极影响更大。本研究结合公正理论和时间负性偏见原理，检验了奖励稳定性对公正评价及其后续行为后果的影响。具体来说，该理论表明，一次的低奖励不能被另一次同样大小的高奖励所补偿。相反，随着时间的推移，奖励的波动会降低群体成员的公正评价。预计这将影响合作和其他群体相关行为。第一项研究测试了不稳定奖励对公正评价的影响。这可能是第一个检验奖励一致性与公正评价之间关系的实证研究。第二项研究将检验不稳定奖励所产生的公正评价如何产生情绪困扰，从而减少群体合作。通过这种方式，研究人员希望了解奖励制度的稳定性如何促进群体合作。这些发现将拓宽我们对群体过程的认识，并为未来正义理论和群体合作的研究奠定理论和实证基础。更广泛的影响本研究对社会正义理论、认知心理学和组织行为学具有社会学意义。结合这些不同领域的文献，研究结果有望促进司法程序的跨学科研究。在社会层面，研究结果与组织决策过程和政府政策相关。本研究预测，不稳定的奖励制度会增加组织维持员工对团体承诺的额外成本。该研究还暗示了政府政策的含义，即随着时间的推移，政策的不一致性将使人们不仅认为政府不可靠，而且认为政府不公平。第三，本研究为本科生提供了第一手的科研训练。

David Melamed Hyomin Park The University of South Carolina This research investigates the stability of rewards on group cooperation. Justice theory has shown that justice evaluations play a key role in producing emotional and behavioral reactions among group members. However, little attention has been paid to role of the stability of rewards over time in producing its perceptual, emotional, and behavioral consequences. In the real world, however, most people belong to a group and conduct exchange relations repeatedly. To understand justice evaluations, it is important to investigate the effects of the stability of rewards over an extended period of time. Negativity bias explains that a negative event has a stronger effect on people's evaluations than a positive effect of the same size. Combining justice theory with the principle of negativity bias over time, this research tests the effect of reward stability on justice evaluations and subsequent behavioral consequences. Specifically, the theory suggests that an under-reward at one time cannot be compensated for by the same size over-reward at another time. Rather, the fluctuation of rewards over time will reduce justice evaluations of group members. This is predicted to effect cooperation and other group-related behaviors.The first study tests the effect of unstable rewards on justice evaluations. This is liely the first empirical study which tests the relationship between reward consistency and justice evaluations. The second study will test how the justice evaluations generated by unstable rewards can produce emotional distress and consequently reduce group cooperation. In this way, the investigators expect to comprehend how the stability of a reward system facilitates group cooperation. These findings will broaden our knowledge of group processes and lay a theoretical and empirical foundation for future research regarding justice theory and group cooperation. Broader ImpactsThe research has sociological implications for social justice theory as well as cognitive psychology, and organizational behavior. Combining literatures across those diverse fields, the findings are expected to facilitate interdisciplinary research on justice processes. At the societal-level, the research results are relevant to organizational decision making processes and government policy. This study predicts that an unstable reward system will promote extra costs for the organization to maintain people's commitment to the group. The research also suggests implications for government policy that inconsistency of a policy over time will make people regard the government not only as unreliable, but also as unfair. Third, the research provides undergraduate students with first hand research training.