Ingroup versus Outgroup Choices of Strategy Made by Boys Playing a Non-Zero-Sum Game

Abstract

32 boys attending a therapeutic camp for emotionally disturbed children played a modified Prisoner's Dilemma game, 2 teams playing on each occasion. Ss choose a competitive or cooperative strategy toward both opponents and partners for 45 trials. Partners received more cooperation than opponents (p < .001). This result successfully replicated earlier findings. on the other hand, post-ratings on several types of traits failed to distinguish between ingroup and outgroup. A number of correlations were presented: significant positive correlations occurred in regard to favorability of ratings of ingroup and outgroup and cooperativeness toward ingroup and outgroup. Cooperativeness in the experimental session did not correlate with counselor ratings on aggression, cooperation, or attention.

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