Being European in a social dilemma: The effect of European identity on cooperation

One hundred and sixteen students from an Italian university took part in a two-person social dilemma game with a European bogus partner. The main aim of the research was to test the effect that an individual's level of European social identification has on his/her cooperative behavior with a partner from another European nation. An additional aim was to explore the different effects of the cognitive and affective dimensions of European social identity. Our research also meant to test the role of trust, which for our purposes is defined here as participants' positive expectation about the cooperative behavior of their European partner. Our results showed that the cognitive dimension of European social identity has a significant direct effect on cooperation, while the affective dimension has an indirect effect mediated by trust. We concluded by discussing the results in relation to different theoretical models, and explored several practical implications. © 2012 Cises.