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Glad Tidings And Grave Warnings: The Role Of Advice On Cooperation In Public Goods Dilemmas With Value Uncertainty, Matthew W. Mccarter, Bryan L. Bonner

Organization Management Journal

We investigate how third-party advice on the estimated value of a public good acts as a dual-uncertainty reducing mechanism to encourage cooperation in a trust social dilemma. Experiment 1 finds that the valence of an advisor’s estimate affects cooperation behavior and that this advice effect is mediated by the level of trust that an individual has in fellow group members. Experiment 2 finds that when estimates about the value of the public good are mixed, trust in experts declines, and trust in other group members also declines. Experiment 3 finds that mixed valence estimates do not affect cooperation behavior when …