Perceived Task Difficulty, Causal Attributions, and Preferences for Structural Change in Resource Dilemmas
This study investigated the effects of causal attributions for group performance on Preferences for structural change in resource dilemmas. Six-person groups performed a resource management task in which members harvested resource units from a common, replenishable pool. All subjects. received preprogrammed feedback that their group had failed to maintain the common resource. After 10 harvest trials, subjects voted whether to elect a group leader to manage the common pool in a second session. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, two variables were manipulated: perceived cause of group performance (task difficulty, personal greed) and attribution questionnaire (present, absent). As expected, a higher proportion of task difficulty subjects voted for a group leader than did personal greed subjects. This finding suggests that causal attributions for group performance moderate the perceived effectiveness of the structural change, thereby influencing numbers'choices in a manner consistent with structural goal/expectation theory of instrumental cooperation in social dilemmas.