Can We Manage First Impressions in Cooperation Problems? An Experimental
36 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2011 Last revised: 30 Sep 2014
Date Written: May 2014
Abstract
We study how cooperative behavior reacts to selective (favorable or unfavorable) pre-play information about the cooperativeness of other, unrelated groups within an experimental framework that is sufficiently rich for conflicting behavioral norms to emerge. We find that cooperation crucially depends on pre-play information, coinciding with a change in initial beliefs. Over time, behavior within both types of groups becomes increasingly homogeneous, indicating the formation of two rather different social norms, depending on whether pre-play information was favorable or unfavorable. In addition, we find unfavorable information to substantially reduce the effectiveness of peer punishment. For these differences to emerge it is immaterial whether each member or only one member of a four-person group receives the pre-play information.
Keywords: experiment, information, Norms, cooperation, Effectiveness of Sanctions, Expectations
JEL Classification: H41, D63, C90
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?
Recommended Papers
-
The Effect of Rewards and Sanctions in Provision of Public Goods
By Martin Sefton, Robert Shupp, ...
-
Driving Forces Behind Informal Sanctions
By Armin Falk, Ernst Fehr, ...
-
Driving Forces of Informal Sanctions
By Armin Falk, Ernst Fehr, ...
-
Punishing Free-Riders: How Group Size Affects Mutual Monitoring and the Provision of Public Goods
-
Social Preferences, Beliefs, and the Dynamics of Free Riding in Public Good Experiments
By Urs Fischbacher and Simon Gaechter
-
The Carrot or the Stick: Rewards, Punishments and Cooperation
By James Andreoni, William T. Harbaugh, ...