THE ROLE OF IDENTIFIABILITY IN THE REDUCTION OF INTERINDIVIDUAL INTERGROUP DISCONTINUITY

Interindividual-intergroup discontinuity is the tendency, in mixed-mot ive situations, for groups to interact more competitively, or less coo peratively, than individuals. In order to assess whether the discontin uity effect is partially driven by the individual anonymity inherent i n group decisions, a laboratory experiment was conducted in which grou p members' votes for the choices on a PDG-Alt matrix were, or were not , to be known by the members of the other group. The results indicated that group members who anticipated that their votes would be identifi ed by the other group made fewer competitive choices and more cooperat ive choices. A number of different possible theoretical interpretation s of these results were discussed. Separate results from a variety of assessments provided evidence for the fear and greed interpretation of discontinuity. It was found, for example, that discussions between gr oups contained more distrust and greed statements than did discussions between individuals. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.