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Social surplus determines cooperation rates in the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma

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  • Luca Rigotti

Abstract

We provide evidence on how cooperation rates vary across payoff parameters in the Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD), using four one-shot games that differ only in the payoffs from mutual cooperation. In our experiment, participants play only the PD game, and play the game once and only once, so there are no potential confounds or methodological issues. Our results show that higher monetary payoffs from cooperation are associated with substantially higher cooperation rates, which increase monotonically from 23% to 60%. Participants’ beliefs about cooperation rates track closely actual cooperation rates: higher cooperation is expected from others when mutual cooperation payoffs are higher. This is true also for participants who, in a follow-up experiment, only make guesses about the choices of others.

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  • Luca Rigotti, 2016. "Social surplus determines cooperation rates in the one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma," Working Paper 5877, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh.
    • Handle: RePEc:pit:wpaper:5877
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    4. Kuroda, Michael & Li, Jieran & Shachat, Jason & Wei, Lijia & Zhu, Bochen, 2022. "An experimental study of intra- and international cooperation: Chinese and American play in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Malte Baader & Simon Gaechter & Kyeongtae Lee & Martin Sefton, 2022. "Social Preferences and the Variability of Conditional Cooperation," CESifo Working Paper Series 9924, CESifo.
    6. Simon Gaechter & Kyeongtae Lee & Martin Sefton, 2020. "Risk, Temptation, and Efficiency in Prisoner's Dilemmas," Discussion Papers 2020-15, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    7. Deffains, Bruno & Espinosa, Romain & Fluet, Claude, 2019. "Laws and norms: Experimental evidence with liability rules," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Marek Hudik, 2020. "Equilibrium as compatibility of plans," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 89(3), pages 349-368, October.
    9. Gächter, Simon & Lee, Kyeongtae & Sefton, Martin & Weber, Till O., 2021. "Risk, Temptation, and Efficiency in the One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma," IZA Discussion Papers 14895, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Anujit Chakraborty, 2022. "Motives Behind Cooperation in Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma," Working Papers 353, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    11. Hans-Theo Normann & Martin Sternberg, 2021. "Human-Algorithm Interaction: Algorithmic Pricing in Hybrid Laboratory Markets," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2021_11, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, revised 13 Apr 2022.
    12. Marek Hudik, 0. "Equilibrium as compatibility of plans," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    13. Bruno Deffains & Claude Fluet, 2020. "Social Norms and Legal Design," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 139-169.
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    15. Valeria Maggian & Ludovica Spinola, 2024. "Spillover effects of cooperative behaviour when switching tasks: the role of gender," Working Papers 2024: 09, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    16. Chakraborty, Anujit, 2023. "Motives behind cooperation in finitely repeated prisoner's dilemma," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 105-132.
    17. Guney, Begum & Richter, Michael, 2018. "Costly switching from a status quo," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 55-70.
    18. Qingzhou Sun & Haozhi Guo & Jiarui Wang & Jing Zhang & Chengming Jiang & Yongfang Liu, 2021. "Differences in cooperation between social dilemmas of gain and loss," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(6), pages 1506-1524, November.
    19. Sutter, Matthias & Untertrifaller, Anna, 2020. "Children's heterogeneity in cooperation and parental background: An experimental study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 286-296.
    20. Tóbiás, Áron, 2023. "Rational Altruism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 50-80.
    21. Normann, Hans-Theo & Sternberg, Martin, 2023. "Human-algorithm interaction: Algorithmic pricing in hybrid laboratory markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles

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