Locomotion in social dilemmas: How people adapt to cooperative, tit-for-tat, and noncooperative partners

The authors address locomotion in social dilemmas, examining the influence of social value orientation (prosocial, individualistic, and competitive or ientations) and partner's strategy (100% cooperation, tit for tat, and 100% noncooperation) on cooperative behavior and locomotion to enhanced or redu ced levels of interdependence (tendencies toward approach vs. avoidance). E xtending prior research on behavioral assimilation (e.g., H. H. Kelley % A. J. Stahelski, 1970), results revealed that a noncooperative partner elicit ed not only relatively low levels of cooperation but also locomotions to lo w interdependence. Also, relative to prosocials and individualists, competi tors exhibited low levels of cooperation and locomotions to low interdepend ence with a tit-for-tat partner. This underscores the functionality of tit for tat, in that it moves away those who seek relative advantage, thus mini mizing the costs following from noncooperative interactions.