Analysis: Getting people to cooperate and do the right thing doesn’t always require the threat of punishment or penalties
Cooperation among humans is vital for many things. In our everyday lives, we face situations every day that need cooperation at work, at school or at home. Maybe you had to collaborate on a group project, lead a team or just get your kids to follow house rules.
It’s needed to tackle global challenges, such as climate change. Keeping the planet habitable requires effort from all of us. That may be sorting your recycling, using less energy, flying less or even planting trees. To keep the planet alive, everyone needs to cooperate and contribute their part.
To get others to cooperate, those in charge – such as governments, managers, teachers or parents – often introduce consequences for not doing so. When threatened with sanctions, people tend to cooperate. For example, citizens sort their rubbish, employees meet deadlines or kids behave in class.
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But what happens when those sanctions are stopped? Typically, cooperation declines. Our research, however, uncovers a powerful alternative: if those in charge communicate their trust in people, they are much more likely to keep cooperating, even without any threat of punishment.
We ran a series of experiments to mimic real-life cooperation challenges. Everyone who participated received real money from us. They could use this money for themselves and make even more money in doing so, or they could invest as much as they liked into a shared pool that benefitted everyone a little bit. To make the most money, one would need to keep all of one’s own money selfishly, and hope for everyone else to chip in and invest their money in the community.
The situation that we created in our research is similar to how taxes work. Many people do not like to pay taxes (ie to contribute to the community). After all, they would have more money if they did not. However, society would not function if everyone skipped out. There would be no roads, schools or healthcare, to name three of the major public budgets in Ireland. To keep the country going we depend on each other to be cooperative, do the right thing and pay our taxes.
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So, what happened in the experiments? At first, we asked participants to cooperate and to give their money to the community, generating a return for everyone. Just like government punish people for not paying their taxes, we told participants that they might be punished if they were not contributing. In the experiments, we punished people who did not cooperate by imposing fines and by taking their money. As you might expect, cooperation was high when people knew someone monitored their behaviour and potentially punished them, just like people pay their taxes if they fear being caught and punished.
What was the effect of removing the threat of punishment? Again, we provided participants with money that they could use for themselves or spend on the community. This time, we told them that no-one would be checking their choices and no-one would punish them. What we found is similar to what other research found: if people were not watched, they were more likely to behave selfishly and use the money for themselves.
But when we told them that we trusted them to keep cooperating, something remarkable happened. Even without enforcement, cooperation stayed high. These findings offer an encouraging lesson: Trust matters. When people feel trusted, they want to live up to that trust. A simple message, like: “I trust you” can make a difference.
People tend to rise to the occasion when they know someone believes in them
Picture a manager saying “I trust you to work responsibly from home” or a teacher telling students “I trust you to behave” when loosening rules. Think of a parent telling their kids “I trust you to take turns with your toys without me stepping in” or even a government removing penalties with the message “we trust our citizens to do the right thing.” These small, sincere messages create a powerful effect. People tend to rise to the occasion when they know someone believes in them. But without that message, simply lifting rules or punishments can backfire and cooperation often drops unless it’s clear that the change is based on trust.
Our findings challenge the notion that rules alone drive cooperation and offer a roadmap for authorities, such as policymakers, managers, teachers or parents, that are looking to foster voluntary compliance. So, would you trust people to do the right thing? Our research suggests you should – but don’t forget to tell them that you do.
This research was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
