I built a team of about 27 people consisting of both social and computer scientists that worked to develop and build the Cooperation Databank (CoDa) – a databank that contains 2,641 studies on human cooperation (1958-2017). Experts annotated these studies for 312 variables, including the quantitative results (effect sizes). We designed an ontology that defines and relates concepts in cooperation research and that can represent the relationships between individual study results. We have created a research platform that, based on the dataset, enables users to retrieve studies that test the relation of variables with cooperation, visualize these study results, and perform meta-analyses. (see Spardaro et al. 2020)
see the cooperation databank here: (
https://cooperationdatabank.org/(se abrirá en una nueva ventana)).
We have also used the data from the databank to conduct meta-analyses. Projects 1.1 and 1.2 were achieved in a single paper that analyzed the relation between about 50 different personality traits and cooperation and then we studied whether the degree of conflicting interests and repeated interactions moderated the relation between personality variables and cooperation. This paper was published in the top journal in multi-disciplinary psychology, Psychological Bulletin (Theilmann, Spadaro, & Balliet, 2020). We have also, so far, published another meta-analysis on the relation between social value orientation, expectations and coopeation (Pletzer et al., 2018).
We are currently completing other meta-analyses that I have outlined in the proposal, including about how cooperation varies across societies (Spadaro et al., in prep), structural solutions to social dilemmas (Jin et al., in prep), and whether cooperation changed over time in the U.S. (Luan et al., in prep.). These papers will be completed and submitted for publication within the next 6 months.
For project 2, I have developed a theory about how people infer their interdependence with others in social situations (Balliet, Tybur, & Van Lange, 2017). This provided the basis for a line of research on this topic, and the first steps we took were to develop a measurement tool to assess how people understand their interdependence with others in social situations (Gerpott, Balliet, et al., 2018; Project 2.1). Next, we used the measurement, in combination with experience sampling to better understand the kinds of interdependent situations people experience in daily life (Columbus, Molho, Righetti, & Balliet, 2020; Project 2.3).
We have conducted field studies using both experience sampling methods and diary methods to better understand cooperation and interdependence in daily life (project 2.3). We have specifically studied key forms of behaviors people use to regulate cooperative social exchange in daily life, including gossip and the punishment of norm violators – and how these are affected by the interdependence people experience with others.
We conducted a series of studies comparing how people think about interdependence and cooperation, comparing a multi-dimensional model to a template model (Molho & Balliet, in prep.; project 2.2). these data have yet to be written up for publication.
We have also conducted a line of research on the cues people use to infer interdependence (Columbus & Balliet, in prep; project 2.4). We have conducted an empirical study using a negotiation paradigm, where we manipulated power and conflicting interests and study the cues people use to infer whether during the negotiation they have high/low power and conflict, and the implications that has for their negotiation strategies. This project is currently being written up for publication.
My team has hosted a one-day workshop with Scientific Advisors of the Cooperation Databank, and the 17th International Conference on Social Dilemmas.
