The Effect of Communication on Strategic Uncertainty in the Indefinitely Repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma with Noise

Last registered on January 23, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Effect of Communication on Strategic Uncertainty in the Indefinitely Repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma with Noise
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010601
Initial registration date
December 07, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 23, 2023, 7:56 AM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Germany
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Yongping Bao
Affiliation
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-12-12
End date
2023-07-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Noisy Prisoner's Dilemma, Cooperation, Strategic Uncertainty
JEL code(s)
C72, C73, C92, D83
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
I study how communication influences cooperation rates in an indefinitely repeated Prisoners' Dilemma under public monitoring of different noise levels with laboratory experiment. The experiment controls the noise and whether or not subjectscould pre-play communicate with their partner. The experiment aims to answer the following research questions:
Does communication help to sustain cooperation even under high noise when cooperation is theoretically not possible? Does communication influence cooperation rates by reducing the strategy uncertainty associated with belief?
To answer theses questions, I implement 6 treatments varying communication opportunity and the noise levels.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bao, Yongping. 2023. "The Effect of Communication on Strategic Uncertainty in the Indefinitely Repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma with Noise." AEA RCT Registry. January 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10601-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
I vary the noise lelve and communication opportunity in a between-subject design.
Intervention Start Date
2022-12-12
Intervention End Date
2023-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The average cooperation rates
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
I implement six different treatments varying the noise level and communication opportunity in a between-subject design. The no communication treatments and the low noise level treatments are the control groups.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Subjects are randomly assigned to one of the six of the treatments in the lab. They sign up on Orsee, and they do not know which treatment they sign up. The treatments vary in communication opportunity and the noise level. The order of the treatments are determined by randomly drawing an interger from 1 to 6 in the office. In every session, their seat number is determined by randomly drawing a card.
Randomization Unit
Experimental session
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
36 matching groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
288 subjects
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
48 subjects
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
German Association for Experimental Economic Research e.V.
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-07
IRB Approval Number
yX7JRadW
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials