Subject Characteristics and Play of Repeated Games

Last registered on August 21, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Subject Characteristics and Play of Repeated Games
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006318
Initial registration date
August 21, 2020

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
August 21, 2020, 10:16 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of California, Irvine

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-08-17
End date
2020-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We study play in a series of indefinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma games that vary in the probability that the game continues from one period to the next. Subjects play against a known, programmed grim trigger strategy, so that it is possible that they decide how to play each indefinitely repeated game based on expected earnings from their action choices. In a treatment variation, the payoffs from the programmed grim trigger strategy go to another human subject, while in the baseline treatment they do not. We collect measures of subjects’ cognitive abilities and their social value orientation. We also elicit priors as to how frequently across the various games they face that they will choose the cooperative or defect option in the first round of each new repeated game. We are particularly interested in whether these measures correlate with play in the repeated game.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Duffy, John. 2020. "Subject Characteristics and Play of Repeated Games." AEA RCT Registry. August 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6318-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We study how subjects play a series of indefinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma games that vary in the probability that the game continues from one period to the next. Subjects play against a known, programmed grim trigger strategy, so that it is possible that they decide how to play each indefinitely repeated game based on expected earnings from their action choices. We collect measures of subjects’ cognitive abilities and their social value orientation. We also elicit priors as to how frequently across the various games they face that they will choose the cooperative or defect option in the first round of each new repeated game. We are particularly interested in whether these measures correlate with play in the repeated game.
Intervention Start Date
2020-08-21
Intervention End Date
2020-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our outcome variables are cognitive measures, social values orientation measures, prior beliefs about how often the subject thinks it is a good idea to begin play of and indefinitely repeated game by choosing to cooperate, and actions choices in all periods of all such repeated games.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We vary the continuation probability across games. Treatments involve different orderings of the sequence of indefinitely repeated games (continuation probabilities). In another treatment variation, the payoffs from the programmed grim trigger strategy go to another human subject, who does not make decisions.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Players will be randomly assigned to treatments
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1
Sample size: planned number of observations
120 subjects (or more, as budget allows).
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Minimum 30 subjects per treatment, 4 treatments
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of California, Irvine
IRB Approval Date
2019-05-29
IRB Approval Number
HS#2011-8378

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