Toshiji Kawagoe (Future University - Hakodate) Hirokazu Takizawa (Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry)
Abstract
We conduct experiments of a cheap-talk game with incomplete information in which one sender type has an incentive to misrepresent her type. Although that Sender type mostly lies in the experiments, the Receiver tends to believe the Sender's messages. This confirms ``truth bias'' reported in communication theory in a one-shot, anonymous environment without nonverbal cues. These results cannot be explained by existing refinement theories, while a bounded rationality model explains them under certain conditions. We claim that the theory for the evolution of language should address why truthful communication survives in the environment in which lying succeeds.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Experimental with number
0503005.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information
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Steven A. Matthews & M. Okuno-Fujiwara & Andrew Postlewaite, 1990.
"Refining Cheap-Talk Equilibria,"
Discussion Papers
892R, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
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