Social identity mediates the positive effect of globalization on individual cooperation: Results from international experiments

PLoS One. 2018 Dec 14;13(12):e0206819. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206819. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Globalization is defined for individuals as their connectivity in global networks. Social identity is conceptualized as attachment and identification with a group. We measure individual involvement with global networks and local, national, and global social identity through a questionnaire. Propensity to cooperate is measured in experiments involving local and global others. Firstly, we analyze possible determinants of global social identity. Overall, attachment to global identity is significantly lower than national and local identity, but there is a significant positive correlation between global social identity and an index of individual global connectivity. Secondly, we find a significant mediating effect of global social identity between individual global connectivity and propensity to cooperate at the global level. This is consistent with a cosmopolitan hypothesis of how participation in global networks reshapes social identity: Increased participation in global networks increases global social identity and this in turn increases propensity to cooperate with others. We also show that this model receives more support than alternative models substituting either propensity to associate with others or general generosity for individual global connectivity. We further demonstrate that more globalized individuals do not reduce contributions to local accounts while increasing contributions to global accounts, but rather are overall more generous. Finally, we find that the effect of global social identity on cooperation is significantly stronger in countries at a relatively low stage of globalization, compared to more globalized countries.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • International Cooperation*
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Public-Private Sector Partnerships*
  • Social Networking*

Grants and funding

NB received grants from the National Science Foundation (US) (https://www.nsf.gov/) (#0652277 and #0652310) and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the University of South Carolina (https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/moore/academic_departments_and_research/academic_departments/international_business/ciber/index.php). GG received funding from the Center for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization (CSGR) at the University of Warwick (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/researchcentres/csgr/). Other researchers who collected data and who were co-authors in other articles drawn from this project received funding from the Laboratory for Research in Experimental Economic (LINNEX) at the University of Valencia (https://lineex.es/es/inicio/), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (http://www.idi.mineco.gob.es/) (#SEJ2007-66581 and #ECO2008-04784). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.