This experimental study examines how partner choice in repeated public goods games affects cooperation and resource inequality. Participants (n=336) in groups of eight were assigned high or low endowments and productivity levels, creating four participant types. In the partner choice condition, participants selected partners; in the assigned partner condition, partners were randomly assigned. Results showed that partner choice led to segregation, with high-endowment, high-productivity individuals primarily interacting with each other, exacerbating existing resource inequality. While partner choice increased overall cooperation, it did so unequally, benefiting the advantaged and disadvantaging the disadvantaged.

Mirre Stallen, Luuk L. Snijder, Jörg Gross, Leon P. Hilbert, Carsten K. W. De Dreu