10.1184/R1/6705827.v1 Taya Cohen Taya Cohen Tim Wildschut Tim Wildschut Chester A. Insko Chester A. Insko How communication increases interpersonal cooperation in mixed-motive situations Carnegie Mellon University 1989 Communication Cooperation Competition PDG-Alt Interpersonal norms Trust Fairness 1989-06-01 00:00:00 Journal contribution https://kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/journal_contribution/How_communication_increases_interpersonal_cooperation_in_mixed-motive_situations/6705827 <p>Evidence from two experiments indicates that task-related communication promotes cooperation in mixed-motive situations by activating interpersonal norms related to fairness and trust. In Experiment 1, task-related communication increased cooperation between individuals in a three-choice prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG-Alt) but task-unrelated communication did not. In Experiment 2, cooperation was increased both by sending a task-related message to one’s counterpart and receiving a cooperative task-related message from one’s counterpart. Mediation analyses revealed that task-related communication increased cooperation by activating fairness and trust norms (Experiments 1 and 2). Specifically, whereas sending (relative to receiving) a task-related message increased cooperation by activating fairness norms, receiving (relative to sending) a task-related message increased cooperation by activating trust norms (Experiment 2).</p>