Project 3 Outline: Cognitive Mechanisms of Cooperation in Collective-Action Games

Supervisor(s)

Dr Tugce Cuhadaroglu (Economics) & Dr Lizzie Bradford (Psychology & Neuroscience)

Project Description

Understanding cooperation is a central question across economics, psychology, and the social sciences. In many real-world settings, individuals must decide whether to contribute to collective goals despite incentives to free-ride. Laboratory public goods games provide a controlled environment to study these decisions, and consistently show that cooperation varies widely across individuals and over time.

This project investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying such variation. It brings together two perspectives that are typically studied separately. The first focuses on social cognition, the ability to infer others’ beliefs, intentions, and likely behaviour, which may shape expectations and strategic responses in repeated interactions. The second focuses on domain-general cognitive processes, particularly executive functions such as working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, which support strategic reasoning and the regulation of self-interested impulses.

To examine these mechanisms, you design a behavioural experiment using a repeated public goods game. Participants will make contribution decisions over multiple rounds, allowing us to measure cooperation, belief formation, and conditional cooperation. In addition, participants will complete a set of cognitive tasks designed to capture:

• Social cognitive abilities (e.g. inferring intentions, predicting others’ behaviour
• Executive functions (e.g. working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility)

Skills & Requirements

The project will involve:

• Designing and implementing the experiment (using platforms such as z-Tree or Python-based tools)
  • Recruiting and testing participants in lab or online settings
  • Collecting behavioural, belief, and cognitive data
  • Analysing data using advanced statistical methods (e.g. mixed-effects models)

The project provides training in experimental design, behavioural data collection, programming, and quantitative analysis, while offering experience working across economics and cognitive psychology. No prior experience with experimental methods or programming is required, as full training will be provided.

Further details and application process

This project has been awarded St Andrews Business School Research Bursary of £1000 for research expenses. If you are planning to apply for this project, first contact the supervisors, Dr Tugce Cuhadaroglu ([email protected]), Dr Lizzie Bradford ([email protected]), to discuss eligibility and obtain approval. Once an agreement is reached, you can proceed to submit your formal application.

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