Individual Versus Group Behavior and the Role of the Decision Making Procedure in Gift-Exchange Experiments

Kocher, Martin G.; Sutter, Matthias

doi:10.2139/ssrn.333322

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Individual Versus Group Behavior and the Role of the Decision Making Procedure in Gift-Exchange Experiments

Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems, Papers on Strategic Interaction Working Paper No. 27-2002

32 Pages Posted: 14 Mar 2003

See all articles by Martin G. Kocher

Matthias Sutter

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Date Written: August 2002

Abstract

We test for behavioral differences between groups and individuals in gift-exchange experiments. Related studies establish group behavior as typically closer to the game - theoretic equilibrium. We show that this result may depend crucially on the decision making procedure within groups. A novel decision making protocol opens up the black box of group decision making and allows to track important features of the group interaction process. We are able to show that the mere fact of being a group member shifts initial individual choices towards the game - theoretic equilibrium.

Keywords: gift-exchange experiment, group behavior, individual behavior, decision making, reciprocity

JEL Classification: C72, C91, C92, D70

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Kocher, Martin G. and Sutter, Matthias, Individual Versus Group Behavior and the Role of the Decision Making Procedure in Gift-Exchange Experiments (August 2002). Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems, Papers on Strategic Interaction Working Paper No. 27-2002, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=333322 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.333322