The Provision of a Sanctioning System in the United States and Japan

Yamagishi's (1986a) experiment, which tested hypotheses derived from the structural goal/expectation approach to the problem of social dilemmas, was replicated using North American subjects. The results of the current experiment, using 48 same-sex, four-person groups, replicated the major findings of the original study. In addition, American subjects had a higher level of trust and cooperated more in the absence of a sanctioning system than did Japanese subjects. On the other hand, the predicted difference between American and Japanese subjects in the contribution to the provision of a sanctioning system did not emerge.