Cooperation in social dilemmas, trust and reciprocity

Abstract

The present study attempts to connect cooperative behavior in the repeated play prisoner's dilemma (RPPD) with "trusting" and "reciprocal" behavior. Our goal is to see if people with different propensities to cooperate exhibit differing degrees of trust and reciprocity. We find the subjects who choose to cooperate in a RPPD game exhibit higher levels of trust. However when it comes to reciprocal behavior, cooperating subjects do not behave differently than subjects who choose to defect. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.