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Nonverbal Feedback, Strategic Signaling, and Nonmonetary Sanctioning: New Experimental Evidence from a Public Goods Game

In: Replication in Experimental Economics

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  • Adam Zylbersztejn

Abstract

Recent experiments show that feedback transmission can mitigate opportunistic behavior in repeated social dilemmas. Two nonexcludable explanations have been investigated: strategic signaling and nonmonetary sanctioning. This literature builds on the intuition that under both partner matching (where the same groups of players interact many times) and stranger matching (where groups change continuously), feedback may work as a nonmonetary sanctioning device, but only the former also allows for strategic signaling. Empirical evidence on the two explanations is mixed. Moreover, the usual design may give rise to confounding matching protocol effects. My experiment provides a novel empirical testbed for different channels by which feedback – costless disapproval points – may affect behavior in a repeated public goods game. In particular, it is based on a random matching scheme that neutralizes the confounding effects of different matching protocols on behavior. The transmission of feedback is found to foster prosocial behavior. The data favor the nonmonetary sanctioning explanation rather than the signaling hypothesis. This study provides a novel set of evidence that (i) communication may mitigate selfishness in social dilemmas and (ii) the source of this phenomenon may be linked to the emotional reaction that communication evokes in humans.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Zylbersztejn, 2015. "Nonverbal Feedback, Strategic Signaling, and Nonmonetary Sanctioning: New Experimental Evidence from a Public Goods Game," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Replication in Experimental Economics, volume 18, pages 153-181, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rexezz:s0193-230620150000018006
    DOI: 10.1108/S0193-230620150000018006
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    Cited by:

    1. Davide Dragone & Fabio Galeotti & Raimondello Orsini, 2017. "Non-Monetary Feedback Induces More Cooperation: Students and Workers in a Voluntary Contribution Mechanism," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 68(5), pages 793-808.
    2. Christoph Engel, 2019. "When Does Transparency Backfire? Putting Jeremy Bentham's Theory of General Prevention to the Experimental Test," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 881-908, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public goods game; voluntary contribution mechanism; feedback; signaling; nonmonetary sanctioning; disapproval; C72; D83;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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