Prisoners and their dilemma

Menusch Khadjavi and Andreas Lange

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2013, vol. 92, issue C, 163-175

Abstract: We report insights into the behavior of prisoners in dilemma situations that so famously carry their name. We compare female inmates and students in a simultaneous and a sequential Prisoner's Dilemma. In the simultaneous Prisoner's Dilemma, the cooperation rate among inmates exceeds the rate of cooperating students. Relative to the simultaneous dilemma, cooperation among first-movers in the sequential Prisoner's Dilemma increases for students, but not for inmates. Students and inmates behave identically as second movers. Hence, we find a similar and significant fraction of inmates and students to hold social preferences.

Keywords: Prisoner's Dilemma; Inmates; Lab experiment; Lab-in-the-field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 C93 K00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:92:y:2013:i:c:p:163-175

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2013.05.015

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