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Facebook-to-Facebook: online communication and economic cooperation

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  • Anna Lou Abatayo
  • John Lynham
  • Katerina Sherstyuk

Abstract

Direct face-to-face communication has traditionally been found to be more effective for fostering economic cooperation than any form of indirect, mediated communication. We inquire whether this is still the case since most young adults routinely use texting and online social media to communicate with each other. We find that young adults in our laboratory public goods experiment are just as adept at finding and sustaining cooperative agreements when communicating within a Facebook group and through online chat as they are in person.

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  • Anna Lou Abatayo & John Lynham & Katerina Sherstyuk, 2018. "Facebook-to-Facebook: online communication and economic cooperation," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(11), pages 762-767, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:25:y:2018:i:11:p:762-767
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2017.1363857
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    Cited by:

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    4. J Jobu Babin, 2020. "Linguistic signaling, emojis, and skin tone in trust games," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-14, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

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