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Strategic thinking: The influence of the game

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  • Penczynski, Stefan P.

Abstract

In order to assess the extent to which features of a game affect the strategic sophistication of the people involved, this study investigates the relevance of differing objectives (matching/mismatching) and of virtually moving first or second in the “hide and seek” game. In three different treatments, mismatchers and matchers are not found to exhibit significantly different levels of reasoning although level averages and winning probabilities always are in favor of the matchers. Varying the virtual timing of the game has a significant impact on the shape of the level distribution. The analysis relies on intrateam communication, whose coding is shown to be stable and replicable.

Suggested Citation

  • Penczynski, Stefan P., 2016. "Strategic thinking: The influence of the game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 72-84.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:128:y:2016:i:c:p:72-84
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2016.05.006
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    Cited by:

    1. Crawford, Vincent P., 2018. "“Fatal Attraction” and Level-k thinking in games with Non-neutral frames," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 219-224.
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    3. Wolff, Irenaeus, 2021. "The lottery player’s fallacy: Why labels predict strategic choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 16-29.
    4. Penczynski, Stefan P., 2016. "Persuasion: An experimental study of team decision making," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 244-261.
    5. Alessandro Sontuoso & Sudeep Bhatia, 2021. "A notion of prominence for games with natural‐language labels," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(1), pages 283-312, January.
    6. Zoi Terzopoulou & Ulle Endriss, 2022. "Strategic manipulation in judgment aggregation under higher-level reasoning," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 363-385, March.
    7. Tong, Hanh T. & Freeman, David J., 2021. "Anchors of strategic reasoning in the traveler’s dilemma," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 28-38.
    8. Irenaeus Wolff, 2017. "Lucky Numbers in Simple Games," TWI Research Paper Series 107, Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz.
    9. Stefan P. Penczynski, 2019. "Using machine learning for communication classification," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(4), pages 1002-1029, December.
    10. Minozzi, William & Woon, Jonathan, 2019. "The limited value of a second opinion: Competition and exaggeration in experimental cheap talk games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 144-162.
    11. Elten, Jonas van & Penczynski, Stefan P., 2020. "Coordination games with asymmetric payoffs: An experimental study with intra-group communication," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 158-188.
    12. Chen, Chun-Ting & Huang, Chen-Ying & Wang, Joseph Tao-yi, 2018. "A window of cognition: Eyetracking the reasoning process in spatial beauty contest games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 143-158.

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