Risk-taking in cooperative and competitive dyads.

The article presents information on risk-taking in cooperative and competitive dyads. An individual's decision to cooperate or to compete and the antecedents and consequences of that choice, continue to occupy the attention of social theorists, researchers and policy makers. Despite this concern, many questions about the quality of decisions emerging from cooperative and competitive relationships remain unanswered. One of these questions, surprisingly neglected by researchers, is whether or not cooperation and competition differentially influence risk-taking. The present study represented an initial attempt at providing an answer by exploring the effects of cooperation-competition upon the riskiness of decisions made by members of a dyad. The dyads observed in this study consisted of friends who chose either to cooperate or to compete in playing a carnival game. Was there any reason to expect that more risk would be taken under one than under the other condition? Scholars N. Kogan and M.A. Wallach have accounted for the "risky shift phenomenon" by suggesting that affective bonds are formed between persons who interact under noncompetitive circumstances. Responsibility for decisions becomes diffused among group members and because of a reduced sense of personal responsibility, members are more willing to make risky decisions than when the responsibility is theirs alone.