Advances in the sociology of trust and cooperation : theory, experiments, and field studies / edited by Vincent Buskens, Rense Corten and Chris Snijders.

Includes bibliographical references.

Complementary Studies on Trust and Cooperation in Social Settings: An Introduction-- Part I: Theoretical Contributions-- Institutional Design and Human Motivation: The Role of Homo Economicus Assumptions-- Rational Choice Theory, the Model of Frame Selection and Other Dual-Process Theories. A Critical Comparison-- Too Simple Models in Sociology: The Case of Exchange-- Rational Exploitation of the Core by the Periphery? On the Collective (In)efficiency of Endogenous Enforcement of Universal Conditional Cooperation in a Core-Periphery Network-- Reputation Effects, Embeddedness, and Granovetter’s Error-- Robustness of Reputation Cascades-- Organized Distrust: If it is there and that Effective, Why Three Recent Scandals?-- Polarization and Radicalization in the Bounded Confidence Model: A Computer-Aided Speculation-- Local Brokerage Positions and Access to Unique Information-- Who Gets How Much in Which Relation? A Flexible Theory of Profit Splits in Networks and its Application to Complex Structures-- Part II: Experimental Tests-- Social Identity and Social Value Orientations-- Does Money Change Everything? Priming Experiments in Situations of Strategic Interaction-- Social Norms and Commitments in Cooperatives – Experimental Evidence-- Rational Choice or Framing? Two Approaches to Explain the Patterns in the Fehr-Gächter-Experiments on Cooperation and Punishment in the Contribution to Public Goods-- Maverick: Experimentally Testing a Conjecture of the Antitrust Authorities-- Cooperation, Reputation Effects, and Network Dynamics: Experimental Evidence-- Comparing Consequences of Carrots and Sticks on Cooperation in Repeated Public Good Games-- Part III: Field Studies-- A Sociological View on Hierarchical Failure: The Effect of Organizational Rules on Exchange Performance in Buyer-Supplier Transactions-- Organizational Innovativeness Through Inter-Organizational Ties-- A Transaction Cost Approach to Informal Care-- Trust is Good – Or is Control Better? Trust and Informal Control in Dutch Neighborhoods – Their Association and Consequences-- Religious Diversity and Social Cohesion in German Classrooms: A Micro-Macro Study Based on Empirical Simulations

The problem of cooperation is one of the core issues in sociology and social science more in general. The key question is how humans, groups, organizations, institutions, and countries can avoid or overcome the collective good dilemmas that could lead to a Hobbesian "war of all against all".

The chapters in this book provide state of the art examples of research on this crucial topic. These include theoretical, laboratory, and field studies on trust and cooperation, thereby approaching the issue in three complementary and synergetic ways. The theoretical work covers articles on trust and control, reputation formation, and paradigmatic articles on the benefits and caveats of abstracting reality into models. The laboratory studies test the implications of different models of trust and reputation, such as the effects of social and institutional embeddedness and the potentially emerging inequalities this may cause. The field studies test these implications in applied settings such as business purchasing and supply, informal care, and different kinds of collaboration networks.

This book is exemplary for rigorous social science. The focus is on effects of social conditions, in particular different forms of social and institutional embeddedness, on social outcomes at the macro level. Modelling efforts are applied to connect social conditions to social outcomes through micro-level behavior in ways that are easily overlooked when argumentation is intuitive and impressionistic. The book sets forth a mixed-method approach by applying different empirical methods to test hypotheses about similar questions. Several contributions re-evaluate the theoretical strengths and weaknesses following from the laboratory and field studies. Improving the theory in light of these findings facilitates pushing the boundaries of social science .