Do individuals with higher cognitive ability play more strategically?

•We show that there is a relationship between cognitive ability and strategic behaviour.•To play more strategically depends on the level of individuals' cognitive ability.•More strategic behaviour is found among players who have a higher score in Raven's test.•Empirically, individuals with higher cognitive abilities play more strategically.

This paper experimentally analyses the relationship between cognitive ability and strategic behaviour. In our experiment, individuals play in a sequential game, where computing the equilibrium is challenging. On completion of the game, we measure each player's cognitive ability using Raven's Progressive Matrices test. Our results reveal that the number of strategic decisions (played in the sequential game) increases significantly among those individuals with higher cognitive ability (measured by Raven's test), compared to those with lower cognitive ability. These results clearly confirm that individuals with higher cognitive abilities play more strategically.