Cooperation in social dilemmas and allocentrism: a social values approach

Research examining the relationship between the allocentrism-ideocentrism c ultural variable and cooperation in social dilemmas is inconsistent. This r elationship is considered in the context of social values within the prison er's dilemma (PDG) in two studies. We hypothesised that allocentrics (relat ive to ideocentrics) would more likely express the social value of minimisi ng differences rather than maximising joint outcomes. In Study 1 the hypoth esis was supported. Study 2, including British and Malaysian respondents, r eplicated and extended these results to rankings of PDG outcomes. These fin dings are integrated with previous research, in particular to explain mixed results concerning allocentrism and cooperation. Copyright (C) 2001 John W iley & Sons, Ltd.