1. The effect of subgroup homogeneity of efficacy on contribution in public good dilemmas
- Author
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Gary Ting Tat Ng, Hildie Leung, Wing Tung Au, Paton Yam, Su Lu, Jane M. Y. Fung, and Lin Tao
- Subjects
Questionnaires ,Male ,BF Psychology ,Social Psychology ,Economics ,Decision Making ,lcsh:Medicine ,Equipment ,Social Sciences ,050109 social psychology ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Cognition ,Sociology ,0502 economics and business ,Psychology ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Payment ,lcsh:Science ,Social Behavior ,Communication Equipment ,Multidisciplinary ,Group membership ,Survey Research ,Ecology ,Homogeneity (statistics) ,Experimental Design ,05 social sciences ,lcsh:R ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Cognitive Psychology ,Commerce ,Group composition ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Public good ,Models, Theoretical ,Communications ,Homogeneous ,Research Design ,Engineering and Technology ,Cognitive Science ,lcsh:Q ,Female ,Cell Phones ,Social psychology ,050203 business & management ,Research Article ,Neuroscience - Abstract
open access article This paper examines how to maximize contribution in public good dilemmas by arranging people into homogeneous or heterogeneous subgroups. Past studies on the effect of homo- geneity of efficacy have exclusively manipulated group composition in their experimental designs, which might have imposed a limit on ecological validity because group membership may not be easily changed in reality. In this study, we maintained the same group composi- tion but varied the subgroup composition. We developed a public good dilemmas paradigm in which participants were assigned to one of the four conditions (high- vs. low-efficacy; homogeneous vs. heterogeneous subgroup) to produce their endowments and then to decide how much to contribute. We found that individuals in homogeneous and heteroge- neous subgroups produced a similar amount and proportion of contribution, which was due to the two mediating effects that counteracted each other, namely (a) perceived efficacy rel- ative to subgroup and (b) expectation of contribution of other subgroup members. This paper demonstrates both the pros and cons of arranging people into homogeneous and het- erogeneous subgroups of efficacy.
- Published
- 2018