The specificity of social dilemma situations

Social dilemma situations have a particular decision structure. However, the present study shows that not only the structure but also the content or context of the situation is important. This study consisted of two parts. In one part, participants responded to 21 everyday social dilemmas by indicating how frequently they would behave cooperatively or noncooperatively. These data were factor analyzed and five factors were distinguished. For three factors the situations with high loadings had structural aspects in common and for two other factors the situations with high loadings dealt with the same content or issue. In the other part of the study, the participants made choices in an experimental social dilemma. They could contribute money to a pool and they received money (regardless of their own contribution) if the number of contributors was sufficient. The number of times the subjects made (monetary) contributions in this step-level public good dilemma correlated significantly only with the scores on the factor with situations in which money was at stake. It is argued that a classification of (daily life) social dilemmas is useful for further research.