Pride and Status: Unpacking Two Divergent Pathways to Cooperation

Cooperation is essential for addressing social dilemma problems, especially in modern society with rapidly growing human populations and changing ecology. The scientific community and policymakers have recognized the potential of emotions to facilitate effective communication of sustainability and large-scale cooperation. However, research has not yet explored which emotions are specifically linked to promoting cultures of cooperation and sustainability. This dissertation focuses on pride and its proposed dual nature in influencing prosocial motivations through status hierarchy. According to a prominent theory, pride consists of authentic pride and hubristic pride, both of which are tied to different types of status attainment, prestige and dominance. The main behavioral experiment in this study involved creating a status hierarchy and using the Ultimatum Game (UG) to test novel hypotheses. It was found that participants were more willing to offer a fair split of money to opponents who displayed a prestigious expression after outperforming them in three cognitive tasks. However, when participants played against a superior opponent who displayed dominance after outperforming them, they were no more likely to offer money compared to a neutral condition without any status differentiation. The results have important implications for the current literature on the relationship between pride and status and its role in promoting cooperation. Additionally, this research has practical applications, but there are several limitations that should be acknowledged. Future directions for further research challenging the two-facet theory of pride/status are discussed. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the complex role of pride in cooperation and sheds light on the dynamics of human social interactions and status hierarchies.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctorate Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Kusano, Kodai

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kemmelmeier, Markus

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Yun, Gi Woong
• Ridinger, Garret
• Papa, Anthony
• Yang, Yueran

• cooperation
• decision making
• emotion
• status

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/10571

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/10571