The frames behind the games: Player's perceptions of prisoners dilemma, chicken, dictator, and ultimatum games

The tension between cooperative and selfish impulses is a challenge for every society. But how is this problem perceived by individual participants in the context of a behavioral games experiment? We first assess individual differences in players’ propensity to cooperate or defect in a series of experimental games. We then use open-ended interviews with a subset of those players to investigate the various concepts (or ‘frames’) they use when thinking about self-interested and cooperative actions. More generally, we hope to raise awareness of player's perceptions of experimental environments to inform both the design and interpretation of experiments and experimental data.

Research highlights▶ Gain insight into players’ perceptions of experimental games. ▶ Players are heterogeneous regarding the belief systems they bring into the lab. ▶ Evidence is found for selfishness, altruism, guilt-aversion, we-thinking. ▶ Evidence also of an aversion to anonymity in experiments and of a ‘house money’ effect.