Table_1_It takes two: examining the dynamic nature of cooperative behavior in adolescents.DOCX

Cooperating with those around us is an important facet of functioning in modern-day society. Forming successful cooperative relationships requires trust, reciprocity, and other interpersonal skills that continue to develop during adolescence. This study examined the dynamic nature of how trust is formed and broken among 248 adolescents (Males = 110, MAge = 15.1 years) throughout an iterative cooperative task (i.e., the Trust Game) and the interindividual differences that alter the success of their relationships. In our study, adolescents from the same classroom were anonymously paired and played a 10-trial version of the Trust Game, which examines trust and reciprocity. We found that trust is formed in the first half of the game and decreases as the threat of defection nears in the last trial. As the game progressed, the relationship between trial number and investments on the subsequent trial was mediated by percent return (ab = −0.09, 95% CI = [−0.15, −0.02]). Importantly, this relationship was moderated by social skills (p = 0.003) and impulsivity (p = 0.001), such that increases in either were associated with decreased percent return and investments on future trials. Overall, we found that cooperation is an adaptive behavior which requires trust and reciprocity, and adolescents need to exhibit both of these behaviors to have fruitful interactions. These findings suggest that interventions to help students think about their partner’s perspective and stress the longer-term nature of interactions with peers would foster successful cooperation in social situations.

与身边他人协作是现代社会生存运转的重要面向。建立成功的合作关系需要信任、互惠以及其他在青少年时期持续发展的人际技能。本研究针对248名青少年（男性110名，平均年龄15.1岁），在迭代式合作任务（即信任博弈（Trust Game））中，考察了信任建立与破裂的动态过程，以及影响其合作关系成败的个体间差异。本研究中，来自同一班级的青少年会匿名配对，参与10轮版本的信任博弈，该任务用于评估信任与互惠行为。我们发现，信任会在博弈前半段逐步建立，而随着最后一轮背叛威胁临近，信任水平会出现下降。随着博弈推进，试次轮次与后续试次投资行为之间的关系，会通过回报百分比进行中介（ab=-0.09，95%置信区间CI=[-0.15, -0.02]）。值得注意的是，这一关系会受到社交技能（p=0.003）与冲动性（p=0.001）的调节：二者水平的提升均会降低后续试次的回报百分比与投资额度。总体而言，我们发现合作是一种需要信任与互惠的适应性行为，青少年需展现这两类行为才能获得富有成效的互动。上述研究结果表明，帮助学生换位思考、强调同伴互动的长期属性的干预措施，将有助于在社交场景中促成成功的合作。