title: The name of the game: predictive power of reputations versus situational labels in determining prisoner's dilemma game moves.
abstract: Two experiments, one conducted with American college students and one with Israeli pilots and their instructors, explored the predictive power of reputation-based assessments versus the stated "name of the game" (Wall Street Game vs. Community Game) in determining players' responses in an N-move Prisoner's Dilemma. The results of these studies showed that the relevant labeling manipulations exerted far greater impact on the players' choice to cooperate versus defect--both in the first round and overall--than anticipated by the individuals who had predicted their behavior. Reputation-based prediction, by contrast, failed to discriminate cooperators from defectors. A supplementary questionnaire study showed the generality of the relevant short-coming in naïve psychology. The implications of these findings, and the potential contribution of the present methodology to the classic pedagogical strategy of the demonstration experiment, are discussed.
authors.affiliation: The Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Israel.
authors.forename: Varda
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Liberman
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Samuels
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005716:Game Theory; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007557:Israel; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008257:Machiavellianism; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D009042:Motivation; D010552:Personality Assessment; D012925:Social Conformity; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States