Daniel Balliet’s research while affiliated with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and other places

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Publications (124)


Machine Learning Approaches for Meta-Analytic Estimates of Important Predictors in Behavioral Science Studies: An Analysis of Cooperation in Social Dilemmas
  • Preprint

May 2025

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6 Reads

Yasuyuki Kudo

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Daniel Balliet

Research in the social and behavioral sciences is accumulating at an exponential rate. One of the challenges facing scientists is how to quantitatively determine, in an unbiased manner, which predictors contribute the most to explaining variation in a specific phenomenon. To address these issues and improve the predictor importance estimation, we propose an enhanced grouped permutation feature importance (GPFI) method using a state-of-the-art ensemble machine learning regression model. A simulation study utilizing four artificial datasets demonstrated that the mean absolute percentage error of importance estimation was reduced to 5.0% with the proposed method compared to 30.0% with the conventional GPFI method. As an applied example, we utilized the Cooperation Databank to assess the relative importance of 106 predictors of cooperation, including parameters of the study’s experimental paradigm (e.g., group size, incentive structure, and repeated interaction) and sample characteristics (e.g., gender, age, and ethnicity), and found that the proposed technique was able to identify the top predictors of cooperation. These results clarify the implications of such information for understanding and promoting cooperation. The analytical methods developed in this study can be applied across the social and behavioral sciences, especially in well-developed topics that involve accumulated empirical studies.


Task affordances affect partner preferences ☆

April 2025

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3 Reads

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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Aria Li

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Magnus Boop

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[...]

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Daniel Balliet

People frequently participate in interdependent tasks (i.e., tasks in which the outcome of one person is reliant on the other person's actions), in which people can behave in ways that benefit others (i.e., cooperate) to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes in daily life. The ability to select appropriate cooperative partners for these tasks is essential to achieve successful outcomes. Yet, little is known about individual partner preferences for interdependent tasks and whether these preferences change in response to situational affordances of the task (i.e., which traits can affect task outcomes). Here, we report four studies (N = 1021) that investigate the relationship between partner preference, person perceptions, and partner selection in interdependent tasks that afford the expression of warmth- or competence-related traits to affect outcomes. Over four studies, participants were randomly assigned to an interdependent task affording for warmth- or competence-related traits, then rated the most important traits in a partner (Study 1–4), evaluated potential partners' warmth and competence (Study 3–4), and selected partners (Study 3–4). Overall, participants strongly prefer warmth-related traits in a partner, but partner preferences also vary depending on task affordance. Specifically, people demonstrated a stronger preference for partner trustworthiness in tasks affording warmth-related traits and preferred highly competent partners in tasks affording competence-related traits. Additionally, preferences for partner traits strengthened the relationship between the perceived partner trait afforded by the situation and partner selection. We discuss these findings in relation to theories of partner selection and cooperation, as well as the implications of these results to develop tools and interventions to help people optimize their partner selections.


Visualization of the experimental setting of the Interaction session
The Interaction Session followed one week after the Intake Session. Here, each participant was placed within a group (4-6 participants). Each participant interacted with all other participants in their group. Every participant repeated every stage (Photograph + Evaluation of Person Perceptions, Partner selection, Dyadic conversation + Post-conversation evaluation, Partner Selection, and the Joint Task) p-times (p = number of participants in their group - 1)). For each evaluation, partner selection, and decision in the Joint Task, participants were presented with a picture of the participant they would be rating, selecting, or interacting with (for more information see Procedure). This figure represents the experimental procedure experienced by two participants (black lines), while all participants interacted with each other (grey lines).
Machine Learning Modeling Setup
The figure represents: a) the data pairing used for machine learning analyses with time-series features of facial and acoustic cues automatically annotated in videos of each participant as input, while output were ratings of these participants on warmth or competence by others; b) presents the analysis process from multi-modal data preprocessing, where each audio-video recording was preprocessed by separating video and audio streams, fed to a pre-trained model used for vocal (OpenSmile) and facial (OpenFace) cues extraction. Lastly, Principal Component Analysis was only applied to reduce the dimensionality of the input that was used as input for the Support Vector Regression (SVR).
Interaction Between the Type of Task and Person Perceptions of Warmth and Competence Predicting Partner Selection
The figure illustrates how the type of task moderates the relationship between perceptions of warmth and competence in predicting partner selection. Specifically, participants perceived as higher in competence were more likely to be selected as partners for the Joint Competence Task, but this relationship was not observed for the Joint Trust Task. Participants perceived as higher in warmth were more likely to be selected as partners for both tasks. However, partner selection was slightly stronger for the Joint Trust Task compared to the Joint Competence Task.
The proportion of explained variance (R²) in the Ridge Regression by acoustic and facial modalities on unseen participants
Partner perceptions during brief online interactions shape partner selection and cooperation
  • Article
  • Full-text available

April 2025

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40 Reads

Evolutionary theory suggests that partner selection – the ability to identify and preferentially interact with individuals willing (warmth) and able (competence) to work towards mutual benefits – is a key driver of cooperative behavior. However, partner selection is complex, requiring the integration of various information, such as impression formation and task affordances. Despite its importance, there is limited research on the effect of these factors on partner selection for cooperative tasks. Thus, this paper investigates how person perceptions (warmth and competence), task affordances, and facial and acoustic nonverbal behavior inform partner selection for cooperative tasks. For this purpose, we asked participants to select partners for a task that either expressed warmth- or competence-related traits. Participants had a 3-minute (online) conversation with up to five individuals, reported their evaluations, selected partners for the task, and then engaged in the task. Results indicate that person perceptions guide partner selection, with each trait being more predictive in relevant tasks. Additionally, we found that the perceptions of warmth, but not competence, can be predicted by facial and acoustic cues during conversations. Lastly, we find that in the context of online social interactions, individuals were more cooperative towards selected participants than unselected. We discuss these implications in the context of the theory of partner selection and offer insights on how these results can be used in future efforts for designing socially intelligent artificial systems that support partner selection decisions.

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A Taxonomy of Prisoner’s Dilemma Indexes

Prisoner’s dilemma (PD) games exist in a variety of configurations. Although the normative solution for any one-shot PD game is defection, empirical research shows that games differ in the amount of cooperation they elicit from human players. Different researchers have developed a variety of indexes, which are functions of the specific payoffs in a given PD, aiming to measure the level of anticipated cooperation elicited by that game. The purpose of the first study in this article was to collect, organize, and compare the mathematical properties of these various indexes. Our results show that many superficially different indexes are the same and that in general six fundamental PD indexes exist. We propose that the six families of indexes correspond to psychological processes and preferences involving prosociality, greed, fear, and risk. In the second study, we provide a meta-analysis of the relationship between selected indexes and cooperation in PD games (k = 280). The amount of variance in cooperation explained by each index ranged from 0.00% to 7.57%. The first family of indexes (described as indexes of the incentive for cooperation in the first study) had the most consistently strong relationships with cooperation. In general, the findings of the meta-analysis aligned with predictions based on our own review and taxonomy of six index families proposed in Study 1.



Social Class and Prosociality: A Meta-Analytic Review

March 2025

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356 Reads

Two theoretical perspectives (i.e., the risk management perspective and the resource perspective) offer competing predictions that higher class individuals—relative to lower class individuals—tend to be less versus more prosocial, respectively. Different predictions can also be drawn from each perspective about how the class–prosociality association varies across sociocultural contexts. To date, each perspective has received mixed empirical support. To test these competing perspectives, we synthesized 1,106 effect sizes from 471 independent studies on social class and prosociality (total N = 2,340,806, covering the years 1968–2024) conducted within 60 societies. Supporting the resource perspective, we found higher class individuals to be slightly more prosocial (r = .065, 95% confidence interval [.055, .075]); this association held for children, adolescents, and adults and did not significantly vary by any sociocultural variable. In testing the methodological moderators, we found no significant difference in the class–prosociality association in studies measuring objective social class (r = .066) and those measuring or manipulating subjective social class (r = .063). Nevertheless, the observed class–prosociality association was stronger when assessing prosocial behavior involving actual commitment of material or nonmaterial resources (r = .079) compared to prosocial intention (r = .039), and stronger under public (r = .065) than private (r = .016) circumstances. These findings generally support the resource perspective on class-based differences in prosociality—that the relatively higher cost of prosocial behavior, combined with heightened experience of deprivation, results in lower levels of prosociality among individuals with a lower social class background.



Psychological Adaptations for Fitness Interdependence Underlie Cooperation Across Human Ecologies

December 2024

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85 Reads

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5 Citations

Humans evolved to solve adaptive problems with kin and nonkin across fitness-relevant domains, including childcare and resource sharing, among others. Therefore, there is a great diversity in the types of interdependences humans experience across activities, relationships, and ecologies. To identify human psychological adaptations for cooperation, we argue that researchers must accurately characterize human fitness interdependence (FI). We propose a theoretical framework for assessing variation in FI that applies to the social interactions humans would have experienced across situations, relationships, and ecologies in the ancestral past and continue to experience today. According to this model, FI is characterized along four dimensions: (a) corresponding versus conflicting interests (b) mutual dependence versus independence, (c) asymmetrical versus symmetrical dependence (i.e., power), and (d) coordination. Because humans evolved to be highly mutually dependent on others to solve myriad adaptive problems, even compared to our closest living relatives, there is immense variability in the types of interdependences humans experience in daily life. Here, we describe the kinds of variation in interdependence humans experience, paying particular attention to social life in small-scale societies. In demonstrating the diversity of conflicts and coordination problems humans manage, we contend that humans evolved psychological adaptations to infer from signals, cues, and properties of the environment the four dimensions of FI under degrees of uncertainty to reduce the costs of cooperation. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of FI theory and emphasize that when individuals understand that others depend on them, it gives way to a new means of leverage to influence how others behave toward them.


Citations (67)


... Beach management and monitoring involve a range of interventions, including recycling, replenishing, and reconstruction, often in combination [44]. These efforts aim to achieve a practical balance between financial resources and various objectives: coastal defenses, natural conservation, public infrastructure for recreational use, and industrial goals [3]. ...

Reference:

Developing a Comprehensive Index for Beaches to Enhance Sustainability and Visitor Experience Through Holistic Monitoring
Psychological Adaptations for Fitness Interdependence Underlie Cooperation Across Human Ecologies

... PD indexes. This allows us to conduct a type of meta-analysis called a metaregression to examine the relationship between each of the 25 indexes and aggregate cooperation across a large body of existing research (Jin et al., 2024;Spadaro, Graf, et al., 2022). To maintain parsimony and ensure that results were maximally comparable across studies, we chose to apply seven inclusion criteria to focus only on studies that maintain a very simple form of the PD game. ...

Institutions and Cooperation: A Meta-Analysis of Structural Features in Social Dilemmas

... When there is no ambiguity about a perfect performancewhen a performance is perfect and universally (and officially) recognized as suchmost people should consider the performance to indeed be perfect, regardless of one's own level of perfectionism. Such instances of unambiguously perfect performances impose a strong reality constraint (e.g., Molden & Higgins, 2005) and may represent a so-called powerful or strong situation (see Cooper & Withey, 2009;Li et al., 2024;Mischel, 1977) that reduces the impact that one's own perfectionism can have on performance assessments. Perfection strivers are thus not always less likely to provide perfect performance ratings of perfect sport performances. ...

Revisiting Situational Strength: Do Strong Situations Restrict Variance in Behaviors?

... In the context of (dis)honesty, interdependence occurs when two individuals influence each other's decisions and outcomes in situations involving potential deception or truthfulness. According to interdependence theory (Kelley et al., 2003;Van Lange & Balliet, 2015), interdependent situations are characterized by six key characteristics: (a) dependence: the extent to which one's outcomes are dependent on the actions of one's interaction partner; (b) power: the extent to which one has control over one's own and one's partner's outcomes; (c) conflict: The extent to which the best outcome for an individual results in a worse outcome for their partner; (d) coordination: how one individual's behavior affects the partner's actions and, consequently, one's own outcomes; (e) future interdependence: the impact of current behaviors on both partners' future interactions and outcomes; and (f) information certainty: the degree to which both partners are aware of each other's preferences and the consequences of their actions. ...

Interdependence theory.
  • Citing Chapter
  • January 2015

... We expect less cooperation in situations with a higher degree of conflict of interests (Hypothesis 1). In support of this hypothesis, previous research found that people are less cooperative in PDs with more conflicting interests (Smith & Bezrukova, 2013;Vlaev & Chater, 2008;Zettler et al., 2013) and that a decrease of MPCR (i.e., more conflicting interests) reduces contributions to public goods (Isaac & Walker, 1988;Jin, Columbus, et al., 2024;Nosenzo et al., 2015;Saijo & Nakamura, 1995). ...

Conflict, cooperation, and institutional choice

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

... are correlated in ways that hinder each other's survival and reproduction [26][27][28][29][30]. Many different settings can create a positive stake in another's survival and reproduction (i.e., positive fitness interdependence), giving rise to perceptions of positive interdependence (e.g., perceived similarity, shared identity/oneness, shared fate). ...

Adaptations to infer fitness interdependence promote the evolution of cooperation
  • Citing Article
  • December 2023

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

... The small-scale studies mentioned above in Anhui province and Beijing municipality suggested that a two-dimensional structure might outperform the unidimensional model [45]. While this was beyond the scope of this study, future studies should delve deeper into the analysis, employing either a two-factor or bifactor structure to gain additional insights into this version's psychometric properties [135][136][137]. The last one is more of a call to action than a limitation. ...

Development of the Generic Situational Strength (GSS) Scale: Measuring Situational Strength across Contexts

... By contrast, in reality, a wide range of intergroup contexts allow individuals to move to a different group (Tajfel and Turner, 1979) and individuals often face situations where they experience a conflict of interests with members of their former group and members who are 2017, 2021). Nevertheless, several empirical studies have pointed out that, identification should play a role in shaping ingroup favoritism under some circumstances (Leonardelli and Brewer, 2001;Stroebe et al., 2005), in natural intergroup contexts (Spadaro et al., 2024). We argue that identification with a professional sports team, in particular, can be a strong driver of ingroup cooperation as well as a barrier to intergroup cooperation. ...

Identity and Institutions as Foundations of Ingroup Favoritism: An Investigation Across 17 Countries

Social Psychological and Personality Science

... We focus on interdependent language because the more people make sense of situations and behaviors as interdependent, the more cooperative they are with others (Balliet & Lindström, 2023), the more obligated they feel to the people around them (Gardner et al., 1999), and the more motivated they are to work together to solve collective problems (Carr & Walton, 2014;Howe et al., 2021;Waldfogel et al., 2024). As such, our central goal in the present work is to examine whether interdependent language use in campaign messaging differs as a function of political party. ...

Inferences about interdependence shape cooperation
  • Citing Article
  • April 2023

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

... economic) students would engage in more (less) cooperation in social dilemmas-as these sample characteristics were not associated with differences in the cooperation between studies, and these effects were neither detected by meta-analyzing within-study effect sizes. 20 Indeed, prior meta-analyses found no difference in cooperation between men and women Spadaro, Jin, & Balliet, 2023). We additionally compared student sample with nonstudent sample, and found no difference in the amount of cooperation observed across samples (see Supplemental Material). ...

Gender differences in cooperation across 20 societies: a meta-analysis