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A Dual-Edged Sword: Empathy and Collective Action in the Prisoner's Dilemma

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Levente Littvay

Central European University in Budapest, Hungary

Brennen Bearnes

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Researchers guided by evolutionary psychology have theorized that in an iterated prisoner's dilemma, reciprocal behavior is a product of evolutionary design, where individuals are guided by an innate sense of fairness for equal outcomes. Empathy as a prosocial emotion could be a key to understanding the psychological underpinnings of why and who tends to cooperate in a collective act. In short, why are some individuals more prone to participate in collective action? The authors test the hypothesis that a prosocial psychological disposition, stemming from self-reported empathy, will lead to group-oriented behavior in an iterated prisoner's dilemma game. Results suggest that an empathetic disposition does not lead to a higher rate of cooperation but interacts with environmental conditioning to produce either a highly cooperative or highly uncooperative personality type.

Key Words: collective action • egalitarian outcomes • empathy • evolutionary psychology • phenotypic variation • prisoner's dilemma

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The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 614, No. 1, 154-171 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0002716207306360


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Sautter, J. A. Articles by Bearnes, B. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?