The social-specific effects on human cooperation learning process

This study aims to examine the effects of partner's cooperation likelihood (high vs. low) and of the volatility of partner's behaviors on one's behavior responses and learning process. This is a followed-up study. Our previous study found that i) partner's stable cooperation behaviors increased participant's intrinsic reward from reciprocity, and ii) partner's volatile cooperation behaviors increased participant's learning rate of updating the likelihood of partner's cooperation behaviors. These results can not be explained clearly because the manipulation of volatility was confounding with the partner's cooperation rate (high cooperation in stable condition and low cooperation in volatile condition). To explain the effect of the volatility of social enviroment clearly, in this study we manipulate partner's cooperation rate (low vs. high) and the volatility of partner's behaviors (stable vs. volatile).