When to Not Respond in Kind? Individuals’ Expectations of the Future and Their Support for Reciprocity in Foreign Policy

Artikel

This paper investigates if individuals’ negative assessments of the future drive micro-level reluctance for international cooperation and reciprocal behavior, a core principle of multilateralism. To test our theoretical expectations, we field online survey experiments on a sample of over 3000 respondents in the US and Turkey in October–November 2020. The experimental results show that on average, individuals are fairly sensitive to target countries’ policy actions and are inclined to reciprocate when contemplating whether to increase contributions to UN or consent to bilateral trade liberalization. Yet, further analyses concur that individual inclinations to reciprocate are substantially moderated by their future expectations. Specifically, individuals who are more pessimistic about their material prospects remain fairly indifferent to the positive actions of other countries, but are more likely to penalize negative foreign policy actions by reciprocating in kind.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Political Behavior ; ISSN: 1573-6687 ; Year: 2023 ; Issue: Latest Articles ; Pages: -- ; Berlin: Springer

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Politik
• Subject: International cooperation ; Reciprocity ; Public opinion ; International institutions ; Trade liberalization

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Kiratli, Osman Sabri ; Ertan, Sabri Arhan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Springer
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2023

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1007/s11109-023-09857-y
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/268907
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET