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Communication and cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemma games

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  • Bahel, Eric
  • Ball, Sheryl
  • Sarangi, Sudipta

Abstract

We consider a Prisoner's Dilemma model with a pre-play communication stage. Players get a disutility from deceiving others after sending a message of conditional cooperation. Each player's realized lying aversion cost is private information. We prove existence and characterize the (unique) symmetric perfect Bayesian equilibrium that maximizes cooperation. In this distinguished equilibrium, the frequency of cooperation decreases as material gains from lying (or losses from being deceived) increase. We introduce an iterated procedure allowing to characterize the set of rationalizable strategies. We find that cooperation may decrease as a population starts to value honesty more. We extend the model to account for the possibility of a benefit obtained when lying or the effect of the audience size.

Suggested Citation

  • Bahel, Eric & Ball, Sheryl & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2022. "Communication and cooperation in Prisoner's Dilemma games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 126-137.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:133:y:2022:i:c:p:126-137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2022.02.008
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    Cited by:

    1. Georgy Lukyanov & David Li, 2025. "Belief Diversity and Cooperation," Papers 2509.08851, arXiv.org.
    2. Lukyanov, Georgy & Li, David, 2025. "Belief diversity and cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    3. Li, David & Lukyanov, Georgy, 2025. "Intergroup cooperation and reputation for honesty in an OLG framework," TSE Working Papers 25-1687, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Li, Dandan & Zhou, Kai & Sun, Mei & Han, Dun, 2023. "Investigating the effectiveness of individuals’ historical memory for the evolution of the prisoner’s dilemma game," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Michalis Drouvelis & Jennifer Gerson & Nattavudh Powdthavee & Yohanes E Riyanto, 2023. "Large losses from little lies: Strategic gender misrepresentation and cooperation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-22, March.
    6. David Li & Georgy Lukyanov, 2025. "Honesty, Stigma, and Cooperation in an Overlapping-Generations Game," Papers 2509.04748, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2025.

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    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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