Indirect Reciprocity and Strategic Reputation Building in an Experimental Helping Game
Abstract
We study indirect reciprocity and strategic reputation building in an experimental helping game. At any time only half of the subjects can build a reputation. This allows us to study both pure indirect reciprocity that is not contaminated by strategic reputation building and the impact of incentives for strategic reputation building on the helping rate. We find that pure indirect reciprocity exists, but also that the helping decisions are substantially a!ected by strategic considerations. We find that the behavioral pattern can best be captured by non-selfish preferences as assumed by reciprocity models. Finally, we find that strategic do better than non-strategic players and non-reciprocal do better than reciprocal players, casting doubt on previously proposed evolutionary explanations for indirect reciprocity.Download Info
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Paper provided by Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz in its series TWI Research Paper Series with number 34.Length:
Date of creation: 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:twi:respas:0034
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Keywords: indirect reciprocity; reputation; experimental economics;Other versions of this item:
- Engelmann, Dirk & Fischbacher, Urs, 2009. "Indirect reciprocity and strategic reputation building in an experimental helping game," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 399-407, November.
- Dirk Engelmann & Urs Fischbacher, . "Indirect Reciprocity and Strategic Reputation Building in an Experimental Helping Game," IEW - Working Papers 132, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
- Dirk Engelmann & Urs Fischbacher, 2003. "Indirect Reciprocity and Strategic Reputation Building in an Experimental Helping Game," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp215, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economic Institute, Prague.
- C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
- D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy
- D89 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Other
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-11-04 (All new papers)
- NEP-CBE-2008-11-04 (Cognitive & Behavioural Economics)
- NEP-EVO-2008-11-04 (Evolutionary Economics)
- NEP-EXP-2008-11-04 (Experimental Economics)
- NEP-GTH-2008-11-04 (Game Theory)
- NEP-SOC-2008-11-04 (Social Norms & Social Capital)
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
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