Social Identification and a Solution to Social Dilemmas

The study explored whether cooperation could be promoted by identification with an in‐group. A game was used to create two groups independent of each other. Thirty‐six Japanese undergraduate students participated in the game, followed by a social dilemma game. Analysis revealed a two‐factor structure of social identification: identification with the group and identification with its members. As predicted from social identity theory, subjects showed a significantly higher level of cooperation when the dilemma game was played with in‐group members than with out‐group members. Furthermore, identification with the group affected both in‐group bias and cooperative behavior in the social dilemma game, but this effect was not found for identification with members.