Personal and situational factors of decision-making under trust-distrust (the prisoner's dilemma model)

Abstract

In a modern constantly changing world the problem of decision-making under trust-distrust is becoming more and more significant. Thus, it is important to study the factors that influence the decision-making process of interaction strategies choice. We tested the influence of situational factors (emotional state and time pressure) on the prisoner's dilemma model. 208 people (123 females and 85 males, the average age 22 y.o.) participated in our experiment. Our results demonstrate the influence of the following situational factors. Firstly, negative emotions increase the probability of choosing a competing strategy. Secondly, people tend to choose a competing strategy in a time pressure situation. The findings show that a personal trait such as emotional stability increases the probability of the cooperation strategy choice. The diametral picture: Severity of such personal characteristics as impulsiveness, antagonism and procrastination increases the probability of choosing a competing strategy (with time pressure and negative emotions). Furthermore, with time pressure, Machiavellianism becomes significant for the cooperation strategy choice, and liking as a criterion of trust becomes significant for the competing strategy choice.