This article presents a refined explanation of why minimal group identities affect
cooperation in social dilemmas. The refined approach builds on key tenets of social
identity theory to argue that identity affects cooperation by leadings actors to
maximize ingroup outcomes and minimize ingroup inequalities. A key implication of
the argument is that social identity is predicted to reduce actors'
responses to the ‘greed component’ in social dilemmas (the
incentive to ‘free-ride’ on others' cooperation), but
that it will not affect actors' responses to the ‘fear
component’ (the motivation to avoid being ‘suckered’).
These predictions stand in contrast to those of two existing explanations of social
identity and cooperation. The three arguments are tested against the results of two
new experiments. Overall, the results support the refined approach.
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