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Citation
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Cui L, Bu W, Gao Q, Wu Q, Huang Y, Han X, Luo J. Acta Psychol. Sin. 2022; 54(3): 259-269. |
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Abstract
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Discrimination perception refers to the unfair, negative or harmful treatment that an individual perceives due to membership in a group. This experience is subjective and affects the individual's psychology and behaviour. Cooperation is the basic form of social interaction, which is an essential part of personal social development and an important issue for sustainable human growth. Junior high school students undergo puberty, a stage of rapid development of mind and body. This development is inseparable from the interaction with and feedback from the environment. In this study, the purpose is to reveal the influence of discrimination perception on the cooperative tendency and behaviour of junior high school students from the perspective of traits and status.
The first part of the study was measured using Cai Min's Education Discrimination Questionnaire. Survey participants were 752 first-year students who performed three measurements in November 2016, April 2017 and November 2017 (T1 to T3, respectively) to explore the influence of discrimination perception on their cooperative tendencies. The second part of the study was carried out using a multi-round investment public goods dilemma paradigm. This experiment was organised into a 2 (discrimination perception level: high discrimination perception, low discrimination perception) × 2 (group type: inner group, outside group) factorial design. The discrimination perception level is the inter-subject variable and the group type is the intra-subject variable. Each participant carries out 12 rounds of investment, in which the cooperation object of the first six rounds is a member of the outside group and that of the last six rounds is a member of the inner group. The dependent variable is the cooperative behaviour of the participants, measured as the investment ratio (ratio of each round of investment to the current round of principal) and the contribution rate (ratio of each round of investment to the bottom line of public accounts return of 200). The participants in the experiment were 68 junior high school students selected from results of the T3 discrimination perception questionnaire, namely, the top 27% with high discrimination perception and bottom 27% with low discrimination perception. The outside group situation was controlled by the simulated point estimation experiment.
Results showed that: (1) At the three time points, a significant negative correlation was observed between the discrimination perception among junior high school students and the cooperative tendency. From the vertical point of view, the cooperative tendency of T1 could negatively predict the discrimination perception in T2, which in turn negatively predicted the cooperative tendency in T3; (2) in the first three rounds of investment ratio and contribution rate of public goods dilemma, the interaction effect of discrimination perception and group type was significant; in the last three rounds, only the main effects of discrimination perception on investment ratio and contribution rate and of group type on contribution rate were observed.
Findings suggest a vertical spiral between the discrimination perception and cooperative tendency. At the beginning of the interaction, the cooperative behaviour of the inner group preference is only observed in the low discrimination perception group, and the influence of discrimination perception on the cooperative behaviour is regulated by the group type. With the extension of interaction time, the regulatory effect of the group type disappears and the inner group preference of cooperative behaviour generally increases
Language: en |