Call for Papers

Special Issue on Social Dilemmas

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Whether in organizations, families, or society at large, we often
experience a conflict between our own interests and the interests of
collective(s) to which we belong. These conflicts are studied under the
umbrella of social dilemmas.

Social dilemmas lie at the basis of many large and small scale problems.
The link with environmental problems like overfishing and pollution is
clear (see also the work of Nobel prize winner Elinor Ostrom), but
social dilemmas have also been related to organizational issues like
social loafing, absenteeism, organizational citizenship behavior,
price-setting and competition, etcetera.

Conflicts between personal and collective interests can be observed in
many domains. As a result, social dilemmas are studied by many different
disciplines, like social and organizational psychology, decision making,
behavioral economics, sociology, and biology.

The relevance for organizational behavior, and its relevance for social
decision making in general makes Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes an appropriate outlet for integrating and advancing
research on social dilemmas.

We invite papers from these diverse disciplines to advance the social
dilemma literature, and address topics such as:

1. Uncertainty and the management of social dilemmas. Experimental
research on social dilemmas has generally focused on the study of clear
paradigms, in which people know the exact consequences of their actions.
In reality, people often face uncertainties (e.g., social and
environmental uncertainty). How does uncertainty affect the decisions we
make, and how can we promote cooperation under uncertainty?

2. Structural solutions to social dilemmas. Whereas much is known
about effects of installed solutions like sanctioning and the
leadership, research on people's willingness (and reluctance) to
implement such solutions is relatively scarce. Within the realm of
behavioral economics, attention has been paid to the willingness to
(altruistically) punish, but how does this relate to other types of
solutions? Which factors underlie preferences for structural change?

3. Temporal effects in social dilemmas. Many real-life dilemmas
have a temporal aspect in them. Current behaviors accumulate in and
affect future and often distant (in time) outcomes. Research on
individual decision making has shown that psychological phenomena like
biased predictions (e.g., unrealistic optimism), time discounting and
temporal construal may strongly affect decisions. How does the temporal
aspect affect decision making in social dilemmas?

4. Dynamic groups. In addition to fluctuations in time, collectives
also vary. For example,(noncooperative) members may be excluded and
forced to leave the group. Group members may also voluntarily decide to
leave or enter groups. Moreover, on occasion social dilemmas extend to
intergroup settings. How do these group dynamic features affect
cooperation in social dilemmas? And how for example does cooperation and
noncooperation within groups affect the stability of groups?

5. Emotions. Classic contributions to the social dilemma literature
have studied the decision maker as a rational agent. While research on
individual decisions making has well recognized the importance of
emotions, research on social dilemmas has paid relatively little
attention to intra and interpersonal effects of emotions. How do
emotions affect decision making in social dilemmas? What are the
situations in which emotions are crucial in understanding human
cooperation? And which emotions are especially relevant as motivators of
cooperation?

6. Method. Social dilemma research has benefited strongly from the
development of game-theoretic paradigms that were developed to model the
main characteristics of social dilemmas. The most familiar examples
include the public good dilemma, resource dilemma, prisoner's dilemma,
and trust dilemma. What methodological improvements and innovations
would enhance social dilemma research? What new measures can be used or
developed to provide behavioral indices for constructs such as
cooperation, trust, reward and punishment, as they appear in society?

This list of topics is suggestive, not comprehensive. We are open to
multiple perspectives on identifying new areas for enhancing the
understanding of decision making in social dilemmas, and especially
welcome interdisciplinary papers. Priority will be given to empirical
papers.

Manuscripts should be received by December 31, 2011. Instructions for
preparing manuscripts are provided in:

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622929/authorinstructions.

Questions should be directed to the special issue editors Eric van Dijk
(dijk@fsw.leidenuniv.nl), Craig D. Parks (parkscd@wsu.edu), Paul A. M.
van Lange (PAM.van.Lange@psy.vu.nl), or the editor of OBHDP Xiao-Ping
Chen (xpchen@uw.edu).