Cognitive Load and Cooperation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cognitive Load and Cooperation

AU - Døssing, Felix Sebastian

AU - Piovesan, Marco

AU - Wengström, Erik Roland

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - We study the effect of intuitive and reflective processes on cooperation using cognitive load. Compared with time constraint, which has been used in the previous literature, cognitive load is a more direct way to block reflective processes, and thus a more suitable way to study the link between intuition and cooperation. Using a repeated public goods game, we study the effect of different levels of cognitive load on contributions. We show that a higher cognitive load increases the initial level of cooperation. In particular, subjects are significantly less likely to fully free ride under high cognitive load.

AB - We study the effect of intuitive and reflective processes on cooperation using cognitive load. Compared with time constraint, which has been used in the previous literature, cognitive load is a more direct way to block reflective processes, and thus a more suitable way to study the link between intuition and cooperation. Using a repeated public goods game, we study the effect of different levels of cognitive load on contributions. We show that a higher cognitive load increases the initial level of cooperation. In particular, subjects are significantly less likely to fully free ride under high cognitive load.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Public goods

KW - Cooperation

KW - Cognitive load

KW - Experiment

U2 - 10.1561/105.00000059

DO - 10.1561/105.00000059

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2326-6201

VL - 4

SP - 69

EP - 81

JO - Review of Behavioral Economics

JF - Review of Behavioral Economics

IS - 1

ER -