Abstract:
The purposes of this research are to study the interaction effects of decision framing and self-control on cooperative intention and behavior in social dilemmas and to investigate the type of decision framings that is more likely to promote both cooperative intention and behavior in such situations. Two hundred undergraduate students whose ages range from 18-25 years old completed a set of questionnaires consisting of a self-control scale, a set of questions aimed to either induce high or low construal level, and a measure of cooperative intention in social dilemmas. Finally, cooperative behavior was assessed by asking the participants to voluntarily distribute some flyers promoting education improvement in Thailand by indicating the amount of flyers they would help distribute. Results from multiple regression analysis reveal an interaction effect of decision framing and self-control in predicting cooperative behavior in social dilemmas (p < .05), not cooperative intention. There are main effects of decision framing in predicting both cooperative intention and behavior (p < .001 and .01 respectively). The results suggest the applicable strategy of high-level construal decision framing to encourage cooperative intentions and behaviors in Thai society.