The Effect of Culture and Social Orientation on Player’s Performances in Tacit Coordination Games

Abstract

Social Value Orientation (SVO) is one of the main factors affecting strategic decision making. This study explores the effects of different cultural background on players’ SVO as well as on their ability to coordinate in tacit coordination games. Tacit coordination games are coordination games in which communication between the players is not allowed or not possible. Our results showed that the two cultural backgrounds (Israelis and Chinese players) differ in the distribution of the SVO angle (a measure of the social orientation of the player), which is useful for predicting the cultural background of the player. Next, we explored the effects of the SVO value on players’ strategies in tacit coordination games and demonstrated that players with different cultural backgrounds are endowed with different coordination abilities (as measured by a coordination index).