| 其他摘要 | Cooperation is the cornerstone of human society, and reputation is one key mechanism to facilitate cooperation. There are two underlying assumptions for reputation to take effect: One is that reputational information must accurately reflect individuals' past behavior, and the other is that the receiver of reputational information must deem the information to be reliable and trustworthy. However, these two assumptions are often not met in reality. One reason is the manipulation of reputational information (e.g., cashback for five-star ratings and derogation of competitors). To reap the benefits of good reputations, individuals can either make themselves appear more cooperative than they actually are not, or derogate others' reputations to indirectly enhancing their own reputation.
Reputation manipulation is often considered as a big obstacle to cooperation, which leads various stakeholders to invest many resources to curb manipulative behaviors. That said, not much research has been done to examine the impact of reputation manipulation on trust and cooperative behavior, and the results from the extant research are quite inconsistent. In addition, people play a dual role as both receivers of information about others and targets of evaluation by others. Therefore, in the research reported in this thesis, four studies were conducted to systematically investigate the impact of reputation manipulation on trust and cooperation from the perspectives of both the receivers and the targets of reputational information.
Studies 1 a and 1b examined the impact of reputation manipulation on the trust of receivers toward targets. Study 1 a (N=244) used hypothetical scenarios of a trust game and a dictator game, during which the reputation targets (i.e., the allocator in the dictator game) could enhance their reputation through manipulation. The dependent measures were the levels of state trust and behavioral trust of reputation receivers toward the targets with different appeared reputation levels. The results show that when participants knew that reputation targets could enhance their reputation through manipulation, participants' trust toward high-reputation individuals decreased, while their trust toward low-reputation individuals increased. Study 1b (N一300) further created hypothetical hotel-reservation scenarios that closely resemble real-life situations manipulated the chance for reputation enhancement or reputation derogation, and measured participants' trust and cooperation (e.g., reservation intentions) toward hotels with different ratings. The results show that both reputation enhancement and reputation derogation reduced participants' trust and cooperation toward high-rating hotels but increased their trust and cooperation toward low-rating hotels. Moreover, when the reputation of hotels might be derogated, participants had higher trust and cooperation toward these hotels, and a lower willingness to spread these hotels' negative reputations.
Studies 2a and 2b investigated how reputation manipulation affects the cooperation of reputation targets using real-time repeated public goods games. Study 2a (N=92) aimed to replicate the positive effect of reputation on cooperation found in previous research. The results show that reputation not only enhanced trust toward others but also promoted cooperative behavior. In addition, both proself and prosocial individuals were more cooperative when they were aware that their behavior would influence their reputation and in turn their future benefits. Study 2b (N=208) sought to examine the impact of reputation manipulation on cooperative behavior by giving participants the chance to enhance their own reputation or derogate the reputation of others. The results show that reputation enhancement reduced participants' trust toward others, thereby lowering their cooperation. Reputation derogation, however, did not significantly affect individuals' trust and cooperation. Furthermore, compared to enhancing one's own reputation, participants were less willing to degrade others' reputations for possible future benefits.
Overall, we found that for reputation receivers, both reputation enhancement and reputation derogation would lower their trust toward high-reputation targets but increase their trust toward low-reputation targets. For reputation targets, reputation enhancement tends to make them less cooperative, and reduced trust in others is a possible explanation that accounts for this effect. Taken together, by systematically examining the key question in cooperation research regarding how reputation manipulation affects cooperation, this research provides new perspectives on reputation-based cooperation and innovative methods for this research area. Moreover, it demonstrates the practical limitations of reputation-based cooperation, and points out promising future research directions on reputation and human cooperative behavior. |
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