Does Experience Affect Fairness, Reciprocity and Cooperation in Lab Experiments?
Title | Does Experience Affect Fairness, Reciprocity and Cooperation in Lab Experiments? |
Publication Type | Working Paper |
Year of Publication | 2016 |
Authors | Medda, T, Pelligra, V, Reggiani, T |
Number | 2016_10 |
Publication Language | eng |
Keywords | Experience, Experimental Methodology, External Validity, lab experiment |
Abstract | One of the most common criticisms about the external validity of lab experiments in economics concerns the representativeness of participants usually considered in these studies. The ever-increasing number of experiments and the prevalent location of research centers in university campuses produced a peculiar category of subjects: Students with high level of laboratory experience built through repeated participations in experimental sessions. We investigate whether the experience accumulated in this way biases subjects’ behaviour in a set of simple games widely used to study social preferences (Dictator Game, Ultimatum Game, Trust Game, and Prisoner’s Dilemma Game). Our main finding shows that subjects with a high level of experience in lab experiments do not behave in a significantly different way from novices. |
Citation Key | 6598 |
Attachment | Size |
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WP16-10.pdf | 3.44 MB |