Signaler psychology : Why people send costly signals of commitment?

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F24%3A00139514" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/24:00139514 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://iacesr.com/conferences/" target="_blank" >https://iacesr.com/conferences/</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Signaler psychology : Why people send costly signals of commitment?

Original language description

In a series of studies, we investigate whether perceptual biases facilitate the effectiveness of cooperative costly signals in humans. Specifically, we propose that biased cost and benefit estimations of cooperative signals are used by automatic cognitive processes to determine the value of costly signals. We first test this proposition in a one-shot Public Goods Game (PGG) where participants have an opportunity to send a costly signal (an extra time-consuming task) to join a normative group or play in a group without signals. Before selecting whether to signal or not, we survey participants on a battery of questions regarding their perception of the signal cost and benefits, and estimate the value of the signal that enters the decision-making process. We found that people playing cooperative strategies perceive the signal to be more beneficial than people playing selfish strategies, a bias that stabilizes the signal effectiveness in assorting cooperators. In a follow-up study, we recruited religious and non-religious participants and asked them to choose between a costly signal framed in a religious terms (signaling devotion) and a group with no signal. We observed that religious costly signal reliably assorted participants high on religious commitment, yet this assortment was not predicted by biased perception of signal cost and benefits and was not associated with higher contributions to the common pool in PGG. We conclude with a discussion of the costly signaling theory of religion and the need to update the theory in light of the current results.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60304 - Religious studies

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA23-05655S" target="_blank" >GA23-05655S: Signaler psychology: Investigating computations underlying human cooperative communication</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2024

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů