Resisting the temptation to compete: Self-control promotes cooperation in mixed-motive interactions

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o This article provides a self-control analysis of mixed-motive interactions, including 2-person social dilemmas and bargaining encounters. We propose that mixed-motive interactions pose a self-control conflict between pursuing immediate benefits through competition and pursuing long-term benefits through cooperation. As such, anticipating high (vs. low) barriers to successful outcomes triggers counteractive self-control operations that increase cooperation, so long as people believe that by doing so they can influence others to reciprocate. Mixed-motive interactions, including social dilemmas and bargaining encounters, pose a conflict between securing immediate personal benefits through competition and pursuing long-term benefits for the self and others through cooperation with other people. For instance, in his classic discussion of the tragedy of the commons, Hardin (1968) describes a community situation in which each member's short-term interest is to graze as many cows as possible on a shared plot of land, but in the long-term, such self-interested behavior will damage the commons for both the individual and others (see also, Dawes, 1980; Messick & Brewer, 1983). Similar conflicts characterize people's decision making across a variety of real world situations, ranging from interpersonal relations between colleagues to international diplomacy between countries (Komorita & Parks, 1995). Although people often recognize that the long-term benefits of cooperation outweigh the short-term payoffs of selfishness and competition in mixed-motive settings, they nevertheless opt to compete quite frequently (Komorita & Parks, 1995; Schroeder, 1995). This failure to cooperate is associated with dramatic consequences across many domains, including retaliation in interper-We propose that mixed-motive interactions pose a self-control conflict and that individuals exercise self-control in order to cooperate. We thus argue against the notion that individuals perceive competition as a normative response that maximizes long-term interests (Weber, Kopelman, & Messick, 2004), but rather, suggest that competition is tempting in the short run. Accordingly, we seek to demonstrate that factors that promote self-control, such as anticipating barriers in advance, will increase cooperation in mixed-motive contexts. A self-control analysis of mixed-motive interaction A self-control problem emerges when individuals face a choice between an action that offers short-term benefits and one that offers …