Apprehension and Temptation: The Forces against Cooperation

The influences of trust and time horizon on the robustness of cooperation have been widely recognized. Nonetheless, separate streams of literature in social science have differentially emphasized these two constructs. The authors examine the conjoint influences of trust and time dimension on cooperation and show that trust and time dimension jointly determine the level of apprehension and temptation in a relationship, which, in turn, moderate fear and greed, respectively. Understanding how apprehension and temptation work in a relationship helps to answer the following questions: How do trust and time horizon influence greed and fear and hence cooperation? How sensitive are apprehension and temptation with respect to changes in trust and time horizon? Why are trust and time horizon individually necessary but not sufficient for cooperation?