The Sources of the Communication Gap

Simin He (), Theo Offerman () and Jeroen van de Ven ()
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Simin He: School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, 200433 Shanghai, China
Theo Offerman: Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NJ Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Tinbergen Institute, 1082 MS Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jeroen van de Ven: Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics, University of Amsterdam, 1001 NJ Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Tinbergen Institute, 1082 MS Amsterdam, Netherlands

Management Science, 2017, vol. 63, issue 9, 2832-2846

Abstract: Face-to-face communication drastically increases cooperation rates in social dilemmas. We test which factors are the most important drivers of this communication gap. We distinguish three main categories. First, communication may decrease social distance. Second, communication may enable subjects to assess their opponent’s cooperativeness (“type detection”) and condition their own action on that information. Third, communication allows subjects to make promises, which create commitment for subjects who do not want to break a promise. We find that communication increases cooperation very substantially. In our experiment, we find that commitment value is an important factor, but the largest part of the increase can be attributed to type detection. We do not find evidence that social distance plays a role.

Keywords: communication; cooperation; prisoner’s dilemma; social distance; type detection; commitment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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