Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes: Social Dilemmas
Whether in organizations, families, or society at large, we often experience a conflict between our own interests and the interests of collective(s) to which we belong. These conflicts are studied under the umbrella of social dilemmas.
Social dilemmas lie at the basis of many large and small scale problems. The link with environmental problems like overfishing and pollution is clear (see also the work of Nobel prize winner Elinor Ostrom), but social dilemmas have also been related to organizational issues like social loafing, absenteeism, organizational citizenship behavior, price-setting and competition, etcetera.
Conflicts between personal and collective interests can be observed in many domains. As a result, social dilemmas are studied by many different disciplines, like social and organizational psychology, decision making, behavioral economics, sociology, and biology.
The relevance for organizational behavior, and its relevance for social decision making in general makes Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes an appropriate outlet for integrating and advancing research on social dilemmas.
We invite papers from these diverse disciplines to advance the social dilemma literature, and address topics such as:
1. Uncertainty and the management of social dilemmas. Experimental research on social dilemmas has generally focused on the study of clear paradigms, in which people know the exact consequences of their actions. In reality, people often face uncertainties (e.g., social and environmental uncertainty). How does uncertainty affect the decisions we make, and how can we promote cooperation under uncertainty?
2. Structural solutions to social dilemmas. Whereas much is known about effects of installed solutions like sanctioning and the leadership, research on people's willingness (and reluctance) to implement such solutions is relatively scarce. Within the realm of behavioral economics, attention has been paid to the willingness to (altruistically) punish, but how does this relate to other types of solutions? Which factors underlie preferences for structural change?
3. Temporal effects in social dilemmas. Many real-life dilemmas have a temporal aspect in them. Current behaviors accumulate in and affect future and often distant (in time) outcomes. Research on individual decision making has shown that psychological phenomena like biased predictions (e.g., unrealistic optimism), time discounting and temporal construal may strongly affect decisions. How does the temporal aspect affect decision making in social dilemmas?
4. Dynamic groups. In addition to fluctuations in time, collectives also vary. For example,(noncooperative) members may be excluded and forced to leave the group. Group members may also voluntarily decide to leave or enter groups. Moreover, on occasion social dilemmas extend to intergroup settings. How do these group dynamic features affect cooperation in social dilemmas? And how for example does cooperation and noncooperation within groups affect the stability of groups?
5. Emotions. Classic contributions to the social dilemma literature have studied the decision maker as a rational agent. While research on individual decisions making has well recognized the importance of emotions, research on social dilemmas has paid relatively little attention to intra and interpersonal effects of emotions. How do emotions affect decision making in social dilemmas? What are the situations in which emotions are crucial in understanding human cooperation? And which emotions are especially relevant as motivators of cooperation?
6. Method. Social dilemma research has benefited strongly from the development of game-theoretic paradigms that were developed to model the main characteristics of social dilemmas. The most familiar examples include the public good dilemma, resource dilemma, prisoner's dilemma, and trust dilemma. What methodological improvements and innovations would enhance social dilemma research? What new measures can be used or developed to provide behavioral indices for constructs such as cooperation, trust, reward and punishment, as they appear in society?
This list of topics is suggestive, not comprehensive. We are open to multiple perspectives on identifying new areas for enhancing the understanding of decision making in social dilemmas, and especially welcome interdisciplinary papers. Priority will be given to empirical papers.
Manuscripts should be received by December 31, 2011. Instructions for preparing manuscripts are provided in:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622929/authorinstructions.
Questions should be directed to the special issue editors Eric van Dijk (dijk@fsw.leidenuniv.nl), Craig D. Parks (parkscd@wsu.edu), Paul A. M. van Lange (PAM.van.Lange@psy.vu.nl), or the editor of OBHDP Xiao-Ping Chen (xpchen@uw.edu).
Eric van Dijk
Leiden University
Dept. Social & Organizational Psychology
P.O. Box 9555, Leiden, 2300 RB The Netherlands
Tel: +31 71 5273709
E-mail: dijk@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Website: http://www.fsw.leidenuniv.nl/psychologie/organisatie/medewerkers/dijk.html
See also www.socialdilemma.com
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