Does Experience Affect Fairness, Reciprocity and Cooperation in Lab Experiments?

TitleDoes Experience Affect Fairness, Reciprocity and Cooperation in Lab Experiments?
Publication TypeWorking Paper
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsMedda, T, Pelligra, V, Reggiani, T
Number2016_10
Publication Languageeng
KeywordsExperience, 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 Key6598
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