Doctoral Dissertation Research: Drivers of Cooperative Behavior in Situations of Conflict

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。人类通过一系列直接和间接的交流方式了解他们从未谋面的人的声誉，这些声誉帮助他们在合作方案中选择新的伴侣。这一博士论文研究项目调查了人们如何沟通声誉信息，声誉如何影响决策，以及哪些类型的沟通抑制或促进了这些联系中的效用。它的调查结果揭示了有助于形成社会共识的文化规范，从而使许多人能够进行大规模合作。结果可以帮助利益攸关方为涉及资源保护和气候变化等许多实体的合作困境制定有效的解决方案。此外，该项目为研究生和本科生提供STEM研究机会，并通过公共外展活动提高科学能力。该项目考察了声誉如何影响冲突情况下的合作决策。声誉是通过各种形式的交流互动来传递的，但人们并不清楚这些声誉是如何持续下去的，因为这些声誉足够可靠，以至于人们在未来做出关于合作的决定时依赖它们。这项研究使用人种学、调查、小插曲和一个经济游戏，评估了声誉是如何获得的，对个人声誉的认同程度，以及对声誉的看法如何影响与其他人的互动。通过社会网络分析和贝叶斯统计对数据进行分析，以确定参与者之间的一致程度和声誉信息的规模。该项目的数据评估了理论模型的假设，以评估基于声誉的合作的重要性。通过声誉传播的内容和社交网络分析，多个学科将受益，因为它提供了对声誉传播的各种功能的洞察，包括排斥、联盟建设、规范执行和建立团体边界。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Humans learn about the reputations of people they have never met through a range of direct and indirect forms of communication, and these reputations help them choose new partners in cooperative scenarios. This doctoral dissertation research project investigates how people communicate reputational information, how reputation impacts decision-making, and what types of communication inhibit or enable utility in these associations. Its findings shed light on the cultural norms that help develop social consensus thereby allowing for large-scale cooperation of many people. The results can help stakeholders develop effective solutions for cooperative dilemmas involving many entities such as resource preservation and climate change. Additionally, this project provides STEM research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and improve science competency through public outreach events.This project examines how reputation impacts cooperative decisions in situations of conflict. Reputations are transmitted through various forms of communicative interaction, but it is not well-understood how these reputations endure, by remaining reliable enough that people rely on them when making future decisions about cooperation. Using ethnography, surveys, vignettes, and an economic game, this study assesses how reputations are learned, the degree of agreement about an individual's reputation, and how perceptions of reputation impact interactions with other people. Data is analyzed through social network analysis and Bayesian statistics to identify the level of agreement between participants and the scale of reputational information. Data from this project assesses the assumptions of theoretical models to evaluate the importance of reputation-based cooperation. Multiple disciplines stand to benefit through the content and social network analysis of reputation transmission as it provides insight into the various functions of reputational communication, including for ostracism, alliance building, norm enforcement, and establishing group boundaries.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.