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The breakdown of cooperation in iterative real-time trust dilemmas

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  • Ryan Murphy
  • Amnon Rapoport
  • James Parco

Abstract

We study a class of trust-based cooperation dilemmas that evolve in continuous time. Characteristic of these dilemmas is that as long as all n players continue to cooperate, their payoffs increase monotonically over time. Simultaneously, the temptation to defect increases too, as the first player to defect terminates the interaction and receives the present value of the payoff function whereas each of the other n−1 players only receives a proportion δ (0 > δ > 1) of the defecting player’s payoff. We introduce a novel experimental institution that we call the Real-Time Trust Game (RTTG) to examine this class of interactions. We then report the results from an iterated RTTG in which the values of n and δ are varied in a between-subjects design. In all conditions, cooperation breaks down in the population over iterations of the game. The rate of breakdown sharply increases as n increases and more slowly decreases as δ increases. Copyright Economic Science Association 2006

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Murphy & Amnon Rapoport & James Parco, 2006. "The breakdown of cooperation in iterative real-time trust dilemmas," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 9(2), pages 147-166, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:expeco:v:9:y:2006:i:2:p:147-166
    DOI: 10.1007/s10683-006-7049-4
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      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Laibson, David I. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Soutter, Christine L., 2000. "Measuring Trust," Scholarly Articles 4481497, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    3. Dimitri Dubois & Marc Willinger, 2007. "The role of players’ identification in the population on the trusting and the trustworthy behavior an experimental investigation," Working Papers 07-06, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Jun 2007.
    4. Evan Calford & Ryan Oprea, 2017. "Continuity, Inertia, and Strategic Uncertainty: A Test of the Theory of Continuous Time Games," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 915-935, May.
    5. Douglas D. Davis & Oleg Korenok, 2009. "Posted Offer Markets In Near‐Continuous Time: An Experimental Investigation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(3), pages 449-466, July.
    6. Philippe Gillen & Alexander Rasch & Achim Wambach & Peter Werner, 2016. "Bid pooling in reverse multi-unit Dutch auctions: an experimental investigation," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 81(4), pages 511-534, November.
    7. Olivier Ledoit, 2011. "Choice Democracy," ECON - Working Papers 038, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    8. Anthony M. Evans & Christoph Kogler & Willem W. A. Sleegers, 2021. "No effects of synchronicity in online social dilemma experiments: A registered report," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 16(4), pages 823-843, July.
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    10. Hironori Otsubo & Amnon Rapoport, 2008. "Dynamic Volunteer's Dilemmas over a Finite Horizon," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(6), pages 961-984, December.
    11. Chen, Daniel L. & Schonger, Martin, 2016. "A Theory of Experiments: Invariance of Equilibrium to the Strategy Method of Elicitation and Implications for Social Preferences," TSE Working Papers 16-724, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Feb 2020.
    12. Jordi Brandts & Gary Charness, 2011. "The strategy versus the direct-response method: a first survey of experimental comparisons," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 14(3), pages 375-398, September.
    13. Yukun Zhao & Xiaobo Zhao & Zuo-Jun Max Shen, 2018. "The hot-versus-cold effect in a punishment game: a multi-round experimental study," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 268(1), pages 333-355, September.
    14. Rodica Ioana Lung & Mihai Suciu & Noémi Gaskó & D Dumitrescu, 2015. "Characterization and Detection of ϵ-Berge-Zhukovskii Equilibria," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    15. Zacharias Maniadis, 2008. "Essays in Aggregate Information, The Media and Special Interests," Levine's Working Paper Archive 122247000000002258, David K. Levine.
    16. Eva M. Krockow & Briony D. Pulford & Andrew M. Colman, 2015. "Competitive Centipede Games: Zero-End Payoffs and Payoff Inequality Deter Reciprocal Cooperation," Games, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-11, August.

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