Constructing conflict templates

July 8, 2026Open Access

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Key Points

The study aims to investigate how individuals mentally represent interdependence in social dilemmas and the impact of task features on these representations.
Analyzed mental representations of 268 participants in creating conflict scenarios using different abstraction levels and perspective orders.
Participants constructed payoff structures under control conditions incorporating both perspectives in a matrix format.
Examined the influence of individual differences, such as social value orientation and belief in zero-sum games, on results.
Participants disproportionately created structures resembling 'Prisoner’s Dilemma', 'Chicken', 'Assurance', and 'Maximizing Difference' games.
Payoff matrix conditions produced more symmetric and competitive game structures compared to verbal ranking orders, while perspective order had no impact on competition intensity.
Social value orientation positively correlated with game harmony, but effects were weak and not robust in sensitivity analyses.

Registered study examines how task features shape mental conflict representations in dilemmas, suggesting situational sensitivity.

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Tiemo Jakob Steinmann (2026) studied this question.

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