Conclusion
’ cooperative behavior, ’
To conclude, we provide novel evidence showing that individuals’ cooperative decisions toward their opponents vary depending on outcome-based feedback of their prior competition. Negative feedback (defeat) compared to positive feedback (victory) had a negative effect on the subsequent cooperative behavior toward opponents via the mediating role of willingness to cooperate and the perceived trustworthiness of opponents. In contrast, the comparable impact of competition participation with individual performance feedback on participants’ cooperative behavior toward opponents was achieved only through the mediating role of participants’ willingness to cooperate. Rather than depending on the person through whom the decisions were made, this effect operates in a context-dependent manner. Our results add to emerging research showing that the nature of cooperative interactions between individuals can vary depending on their evaluation of the outcome of prior competitive interactions.