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Review
. 2022 Feb:43:151-155.
doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.06.020. Epub 2021 Jul 9.

(Mis)perceiving cooperativeness

Charlotte S L Rossetti  1 , Christian Hilbe  2 , Oliver P Hauser  3
Affiliations
Review

(Mis)perceiving cooperativeness

Charlotte S L Rossetti et al. Curr Opin Psychol. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Cooperation is crucial for the success of social interactions. Given its importance, humans should readily be able to use available cues to predict how likely others are to cooperate. Here, we review the empirical literature on how accurate such predictions are. To this end, we distinguish between three classes of cues: behavioral (including past decisions), personal (including gender, attractiveness, and group membership) and situational (including the benefits to cooperation and the ability to communicate with each other). We discuss (i) how each cue correlates with future cooperative decisions and (ii) whether people correctly anticipate each cue's predictive value. We find that people are fairly accurate in interpreting behavioral and situational cues. However, they often misperceive the value of personal cues.

Keywords: Cooperation; Cues; Perception; Social behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement Nothing declared.

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