Experimental Data on Strategic Human Cooperation and Reputation

Experimental data from a study testing strategic cooperation in humans, where informing participants their behavior would be known to groupmates tripled initial cooperation from 17% to 50%. The study was authored by Maxwell N. Burton-Chellew and published in 2020, designed to avoid confounding factors like learning about pay-offs or others' behavior during the game.

Use Cases

• Analyze the effect of reputation (manipulated by informing groupmates) on initial cooperation levels.
• Identify and study players who behave as if they do not understand the game, as noted in the description.
• Test hypotheses on strategic motives for cooperation by comparing behavior across experimental conditions.

Strengths

• Clear experimental manipulation isolating the effect of reputation on cooperation.
• Quantified result showing a tripling of initial cooperation from 17% to 50%.
• Study design prevented confounding from learning about pay-offs or peer behavior during the game.

Limitations

• Sample size and number of experimental rows are unknown.
• Specific column structure and raw data variables are not detailed in the input.
• Data is from a single controlled experiment, which may limit generalizability to natural settings.

Provenance

Source

dryad

Collection Method

Controlled laboratory experiment.

Freshness

Last updated in 2020.