Experimental economics

Cognitive psychology

Philosophy

Social dilemma

Neuroscience

Behavioral economics

Microeconomics

Social psychology

Cognition

Social heuristics

Social pressure

Operating system

Social change

Economics

Computer science

Counterintuitive

Social competence

Cognitive science

Psychology

Dilemma

Relevance (law)

Political science

Epistemology

Economic growth

Heuristics

Intuition

SSRN Electronic Journal

Are humans intuitively cooperative, or does reflection foster cooperation? The Social Heuristics Hypothesis (SHH) proposes that intuition promotes cooperation, but the evidence is inconsistent across studies. We combine a lab experiment with a re-analysis of existing studies to test for an effect of time-pressure on cooperation. We suggest – based on a meta-study of about 12.000 subjects from lab and online experiments across the world - that time pressure only influences cooperation if subjects understand they are engaged in a social dilemma. This finding increases the relevance of the SHH for experiments in behavioral economics as such experiments typically take great care to ensure subject understanding. Moreover, while our findings are intuitively consistent with the Social Heuristics Hypothesis, our evidence suggests that future theoretical research should aim to explicitly incorporate the link between understanding, cognitive processes and cooperation.

Understanding and Intuitive Cooperation