Experimental Game Research Articles

Collective PES Contracts Can Motivate Institutional Creation to Conserve Forests: Experimental Evidence

ABSTRACTIncentives are a widely used tool for addressing deforestation and are often implemented as collective contracts. Local institutions are crucial to the solution of collective action problems associated with forest conservation, but we still have little knowledge of how to encourage institutional creation through policy. Since collective contracts do not eliminate freeriding incentives, we argue that their success hinges on their ability to stimulate the creation of institutions for collective action. To test these ideas, we analyze data from an incentivized lab‐in‐the‐field experimental collective action game played with natural resource users in four developing countries. The experiment simulates management of a common forest, and groups were randomly assigned to a conservation incentive payment condition. We observe how much group members attempt to coordinate on the creation of institutional rules and find experimental evidence that an external incentive program can stimulate the endogenous creation of informal institutions.

Does the Presence of Immigrants Increase Perceived Threat? An Examination through Experimental Games

Perceived threats from immigrants have been associated with heightened anti-immigrant attitudes among host country citizens (Esses et al., 2001, 1998). However, most studies have focused on assessing attitudes using scales, with few investigating behavioral responses. This study developed a new experimental game based on the Preemptive Strike Game (Simunovic et al., 2013) to measure reactions to perceived threats of immigrant attacks. A sample of Japanese participants (N = 1,153; pre-registered) was divided into two groups: one group faced a Japanese opponent (Japanese condition), whereas the other faced an immigrant opponent (Immigrant condition). The results did not show a significant increase in defensive behaviors toward immigrants. However, at a descriptive level, the findings suggest the potential for defensive behaviors to arise from perceived threats. The study discusses the implications for future research including the need to accurately identify threat-induced behaviors.

The politics of pooling risk: People want to help the vulnerable by involving the government in healthcare

AbstractMany people want the government involved in healthcare. Is this because citizens are concerned about their own vulnerability, the plight of vulnerable others, or both? To test for these concerns, we used representative surveys and experimental economic games. We found robust evidence for concern for others. In surveys, people who worried about vulnerable others wanted more government involvement in healthcare. In experiments, people with the opportunity to subsidize vulnerable others often helped. The evidence for personal concern was more mixed. In surveys, people who were personally vulnerable did not usually want more government involvement in healthcare. In experiments, however, vulnerable people often wanted more healthcare. Additional data suggests that concern for the vulnerable is motivated by social preferences, empathy, and compassion. We discuss how the logic of healthcare is different from other aspects of the welfare state and therefore needs to be studied separately.

The determinants of predatory trading: experimental evidence

We investigate the level and determinants of front-running in an experimental asset market game. Participants receive perfect signals about future order-flow that can be exploited to manipulate prices and generate profits. We quantify the changes in front-running activity as we vary the direction, concentration, and noise level of the scheduled order flow. Front-running activity increases with larger, more concentrated, or buy-side anticipated future orders and decreases with noise. Our findings suggest that the inclusion of a large stock in an index should be done in multiple stages to reduce the trading cost of passive investors tracking the index.

Investigating the Role of Adaptivity in Video Games for Attitude Change

Video games have become one of the most widespread forms of media in the 21st century, bringing interactive digital narratives to over 3 billion people globally. Like other media, video games feature topics from our society, culture, and history. Research has shown that narrative-driven video games have a unique potential to influence explicit and implicit attitudes toward the topics they depict. However, the concrete mechanisms through which video games shape our attitudes remain unclear. Identifying the mechanisms behind the attitude-shaping effect would help to design more effective educational games and simulations. One aspect that reduces the potential of video games to change attitudes is a so-called credibility bias, a phenomenon where information contradicting one’s pre-existing beliefs is deemed less credible. For this reason, our work focuses on employing adaptivity to improve the attitude-shaping effect of video games. We hypothesize that adapting gameplay elements based on players’ pre-existing attitudes will mitigate the credibility bias, leading to greater attitude changes and enhanced game enjoyment compared to a static presentation. We propose assessing players’ attitudes before playing and adapting the game content accordingly, utilizing in-game metrics to track players’ actions to further refine the content. This work focuses on adapting highlights in user interfaces, narrative-related messages, and in-game goals. To empirically test our hypothesis, we have developed two versions of a video game – an experimental version featuring adaptive game elements and a control version with static content. For this proof-of-concept experiment, we have chosen the topic of electromobility, but we designed the adaptive elements to be usable with any topic. The experimental game is a delivery manager simulator featuring electric and combustion engine cars, with the aim of showcasing the usability and advantages of electric cars. Our experimental design involves a pretest-posttest setup with an experimental and a control group. We utilize measures for implicit and explicit attitudes and game enjoyment. This empirical study will bring valuable data reacting to the identified research gap. Should the adaptive approach prove to be usable, it could be widely utilized to improve the attitude-shaping potential of educational games.

Festival games: Inebriated and sober altruists

We report a staged field experiment during three concerts in the South of Italy characterized by the same traditional music and a comparable average level of alcohol consumption by attendees. Individual blood alcohol concentration is measured with electronic breathalyzers. The experimental games are payoff-equivalent private property and common property trust games. We find that alcohol consumption is associated with less sharing in the private property game and lower efficiency in the common property game. There is a game-form effect for sober participants who share less in the common property game than in the private property game. This finding is consistent with revealed altruism theory as more sharing reveals more altruistic behavior. The absence of such game-form effect among non-sober participants is consistent with alcohol myopia. Tourists share more than local residents, significantly so for sober participants. The private property game elicits more efficiency than the common property game. This game-form effect is robust across sober and non-sober participants.

Video game accessibility in the top-level genres

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the relationship between top-level game genres, release dates, game modes, and accessibility features in commercial video games. For this goal, datasets were created that included 25 games in 11 top-level genres except for experimental games. G-tests were used to examine differences in the proportions of accessibility features between genres, focusing on sensory, motor, and cognitive disabilities. Additionally, regression analyses were performed to assess the effect of genres, release dates, and single-player/multiplayer modes on the number of accessibility features. The results showed significant differences between the top-level genres and the number of all three types of accessibility features. Regression analyses showed significant effects of the top-level genres on the number of accessibility features, while release dates showed no significant influence. Game modes only had a significant effect on accessibility features regarding motor disabilities. In conclusion, the results of this study present genre-specific numbers of accessibility features in commercial video games. In other words, game developers create accessibility features differently depending on the genre. These findings have practical implications for both developers and players to enhance the inclusivity of the gaming experience. The results can also be used to increase awareness and commitment to the importance of accessibility features in the gaming industry, ultimately creating more inclusive commercial video games.

‘The assisting hand’ or ‘the grabbing hand’: experimental evidence from PPP investments in the implementation of official rotation systems

In the context of uneven and insufficient social development, examining the relationship between the official rotation system and the quality of government services offers an effective guide to addressing government misconduct and reducing wealth disparities. This study employs a public goods game experiment to simulate the investment scenario of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, focusing on three pivotal questions: Firstly, do the ‘assisting hand’ and the ‘grabbing hand’ of officials differ between developed and underdeveloped regions? Secondly, can the interregional rotation system enhance the ‘assisting hand’ and weaken the ‘grabbing hand’ in both areas? Lastly, can political tournaments more effectively alleviate the issue of ‘government misconduct’? The experimental results reveal: Firstly, low economic growth potential limits the ‘assisting hand’ of officials while fostering the ‘grabbing hand’; secondly, the interregional rotation system strengthens the ‘assisting hand’ in underdeveloped areas but weakens it in developed regions; finally, compared to the interregional rotation system, the tournament system reinforces the ‘assisting hand’ in developed regions. These findings provide micro-level insights into the relationship between official behavior and regional characteristics, and offer significant implications for the reform of governance policies.

Pre-commitment in bargaining with endogenous credibility

We study whether negotiators adopt commitment tactics in bargaining, a concept first proposed by Schelling (1956), and their choice of the credibility of commitment. In a modified ultimatum game experiment, the responder is allowed to pre-commit to a minimum acceptable offer (MAO) before an offer is proposed. Meanwhile, they choose the credibility of the commitment, measured by a cost of backing down (CBD) incurred if the responder accepts an offer lower than the MAO. We find that nearly 40% of responders chose a CBD substantially lower than their MAO, despite the fact that proposers were more likely to cave in and offer a larger share of the bargaining surplus when fully credible commitments were made. Informing responders of the proposers' minimum acceptable share of the bargaining surplus does not reduce partially credible commitments, suggesting that these commitments were unlikely made to enlarge the contract zone. Further treatments and analyses suggest that other-regarding preferences may be the reason behind partially credible commitments.

Collective intentions of the social economy: An experiment on the community currency of the French Basque country

Community currencies (CCs) are common social economy instruments for aligning market transactions with social commitments. They change incentives, encouraging trade within the CC network, but may also symbolize and thereby amplify users’ commitment to social values of solidarity and cooperation. The behavioral effect of the second channel, moreover, is clouded by endogenous use of the CC: commitment encourages use, but does use also trigger commitment? We disentangle the direction of causality with a lab-in-the-field ultimatum game experiment, which confronts participants with a choice between more or less competitive responses. By exogenously varying the currency in which the game is played (CC or euros), we isolate the causal effect of the CC on behavior. Self-declared regular users of the currency are less competitive when playing in the CC than when playing in euros. This is not due to unobserved differences in the individuals, because when playing in euros, their behavior is the same as non-users’. Nor is it due to non-convertibility of the CC, as non-users’ behavior is not affected by the currency. We therefore isolate the CC as a “trigger of cooperativeness” for those who have a base-level of commitment to it.

Certified data chats for future used car markets

Used car market platforms are interested in extending their offering from information provision to the whole customer journey. Providing certified data on the car’s state and history enables this extension by eliminating the need to physically inspect the car before buying it. Hence, communication and negotiations can move entirely to a used car platform to cover the entire value chain. How can such a market communication be designed when certified data come into play? This study designs and develops a certified data chat for the selective and controlled exchange of blockchain-based certified data in used car negotiations. An experimental market game is played with students to evaluate the usefulness of the chat. The study contributes to the augmentation of market communication with valuable and sensitive data exchange and demonstrates what a key component of a future used car market can look like. It offers three design principles and insight into why certified data chats are useful.

Failing to utilize potentially effective focal points: Prominence can stymie coordination on distinct actions

Are people skillful in utilizing potential focal points? We find a class of situations for which the answer is negative: the presence of prominent actions appears to stymie the use of distinct actions for coordination. Across several experimental games, we consistently observe that players readily coordinate on a categorically distinct action when all available actions are non-prominent but not when some actions are prominent. For instance, given the action set {Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Tianjin}, most players select the Chinese city Tianjin. Yet, given {Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Tianjin}, they are roughly equally likely to select either American president and unlikely to select Tianjin, and given {Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Shanghai}, their choices are distributed approximately uniformly. The observation that prominence stymies reliance on distinctiveness informs cognitive hierarchy and team reasoning theories of how people recognize focality.

Recreational ball games are effective in improving social communication impairments among preschoolers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: a multi-arm controlled study

BackgroundThis study aimed to compare the effects of two 12-week training intervention experimental ball games combined with standard behavioral rehabilitation against a control group solely utilizing standard behavioral rehabilitation on social communication impairments (SCI) in preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).MethodsA multi-arm controlled study design was implemented, involving 41 children diagnosed with ASD (mean age: 4.99 ± 0.76 years). 41 participants were randomized assigned to two experimental groups and a control group, The experimental group carried out ball combination training program group (BCTP) and mini-basketball training program group (MBTP) on the basis of routine behavioral rehabilitation, which underwent 12-week training interventions 5 times a week. The control group (n = 14) received only standard behavioral rehabilitation. Evaluations were conducted before and after interventions using the Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2).ResultsThe results suggest that both 12-week interventions, BCTP, and MBTP, led to significant improvements in social communication impairment among children with ASD (p < 0.05). Despite enhancing the overall scores on the SRS-2, these interventions displayed varying impacts across different sub-dimensions. BCTP primarily exhibited significant enhancements in social awareness and behavior pattern (p < 0.05), whereas MBTP significantly improved social cognition and social communication (p < 0.05). Both interventions showed slight improvements in social motivation.ConclusionsThe utilization of recreational ball games has showed to be effective in decreasing the impairment levels of children with ASD, while the control group experienced a worsening of outcomes. This suggests that irrespective of the specific ball game strategy employed, both can be employed on a weekly basis to complement standard behavioral rehabilitation and enhance the ability to improve the quality of life for children diagnosed with ASD.Trial registrationThe trial is retrospectively registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR1900024973;August 5, 2019).

A simple twist of fate. An experiment on election uncertainty and democratic institutions

In this paper we study electoral systems in an experimental governance game in which citizens contribute to a public good and policymakers decide how to distribute it. In the Voting condition, citizens receive information about the policymaker performance (how much she shared of the public good with individual participants), her skills and her altruism, and vote directly for a policymaker for the next election cycle. In the Referendum condition voters receive information about the policymaker's performance before deciding whether to remove her from office in a simpler binary choice (in or out). If they decide to remove the incumbent, a new policymaker is chosen randomly from the remaining group members, in the spirit of referendums like Brexit or the plebiscite about the peace agreements in Colombia. We compare these two electoral mechanisms with two baselines in which the policymaker is never replaced (Baseline) and another one (Random) in which the policymaker is always randomly replaced by another participant. Our results show that both electoral mechanisms are largely effective in improving citizens’ earnings by generating more equitable sharing rules. Citizens in Voting and Referendum extract greater surplus from policymakers than in the other conditions and voting against a candidate (Referendum) is more effective in increasing surplus than voting for a candidate (Voting). Contributions to the public good and conditional cooperation patterns remain strikingly similar in democratic (Referendum and Voting) and non-democratic (Baseline and Random) conditions. Empirical expectations about contributions of other citizens are similar as well. However, we show that policymakers distribute the public good differently in democratic institutions, and more effectively in Referendum than in Voting, as policymakers use clientelist transfers to avoid being replaced. Overall, both democratic institutions are effective in improving citizens’ payoffs by indirectly limiting policymakers’ surplus.

The Impact of Cognitive Load on Cooperation and Antisocial Punishment: Insights from a Public Goods Game Experiment.

This paper investigates the impact of cognitive load on the formation and maintenance of cooperation within a public goods game experiment featuring a punishment option. By integrating the experimental designs of prior studies and manipulating cognitive load through the memorization of numbers with varying digits, we reveal that high cognitive load accelerates the breakdown of cooperation, irrespective of the presence of a punishment system. Furthermore, under high cognitive load, participants are more likely to engage in antisocial punishment, while the punishment of free riders remains unaffected. These findings suggest that increased cognitive load depletes the cognitive resources needed for deliberative decision-making, leading to a higher propensity for antisocial punishment. Our study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the significant influence of cognitive load on cooperative behavior and providing new insights into the causes of antisocial punishment.

Public goods and future audiences

Individuals’ decisions to behave prosocially (or the contrary) can often be observed by other individuals, with no direct connection to them, but who may nevertheless be influenced by them (e.g. through social media). Does knowing that they may be viewed as role models by other, notably younger, people affect the way individuals behave? Does it make them more likely to behave prosocially? We study how participants’ behavior in an experimental public good game is affected when they know that information about their choices and outcomes, together with different sets of information about their identity, will be transmitted the following year to a set of new, unknown, first-year students at the same university. When subjects know their photo, choices and outcomes will be transmitted, they contribute significantly less. We explore different possible explanations and are able to rule out several. We argue that the most convincing are based on non-standard social image concerns (i.e. individuals are not trying to signal prosocial motivations).

Parameterizing agent-based models using an online game

Agent-based models (ABMs) of human systems are often parameterized using real-world data. For some ABMs this is not possible because the reality upon which the models are based does not exist or is not generalizable from one setting to another. In this paper we implement an online decision game to parameterize an agent-based model of pedestrian and cyclist route choice decisions in a neighbourhood. Our conceptual framework is to use an experimental game to log decision-making behaviour, summarize this behaviour into a decision model, and then transfer this model to an ABM. The product of this framework is an ABM with agents informed by human decision making made within the game, rather than the real world. The results of our analysis suggest that the decision model is consistent with some general theory about decision making, but the ABM illustrates some unique and contextually specific patterns of flow. ABMs parameterized with game data may be useful for forecasting the effects of change on urban transportation infrastructure.

Graduate Teacher Education Students Use and Evaluate ChatGPT as an Essay-Writing Tool

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been evolving since the mid-20th Century when luminaries such as Alan Turing, Herbert Simon and Marvin Minsky began developing rudimentary AI applications. For decades, AI programs remained pretty much in the realm of computer science and experimental game playing. This changed radically in the 2020s when commercial vendors such as OpenAI and Google developed generative AI programs (ChatGPT) and (Bard) using large, language modelling (LLM). As a result, generative AI is now being considered for use in all walks of life including education. In Spring 2023, when ChatGPT burst into the public psyche, twenty-five education students in the author’s graduate seminar were invited to participate in a qualitative study using ChatGPT as a tool for completing an essay assignment. Fifteen (N=15) accepted the offer. The purpose in doing this was to give students in this seminar the opportunity to use ChatGPT in a supportive environment and to collect qualitative data from them on their experiences using ChatGPT. All of these students have master’s degrees in education and experience as teachers in New York City schools. Their training and experience give them keen insights into pedagogical practice making them ideally suited to evaluate ChatGPT as an instructional tool. This article reports on the results of this study. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, AI, ChatGPT, Graduate Teacher Education, Qualitative Research

Features of technical improvement of wrestlers at the initial training stage

The level of modern judo development puts forward increased requirements for the general preparation of athletes and its individual components at all stages of long-term training. Special attention is paid to the improvement of the training process at the stage of initial training, which makes it possible to identify promising directions that determine the effectiveness of training wrestlers in techniques. The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of the application of the game method of training in the process of technical improvement of judokas at the stage of initial training. The dynamics of indicators were studied, which ranged from 10% to 66.6% for general physical fitness, from 12.6% to 27.8% for special physical fitness, 12.9-37.5% for technical training, and 13.3% for general physical fitness, for which a pedagogical experiment was used, testing indicators of general and special physical and technical fitness as well as assessment of the level of general physical fitness. Thirty judokas, aged 10-12, took part in the study. Of them, 15 were part of the experimental group, and 15 were part of the control group. An experimental training programme with the use of special educational games was proposed, which contributed to the development of the necessary specialised qualities and the mastery of the basic techniques of judo. The games were divided into several groups depending on the task (games with “touching the opponent”, “blocking grip”, and “attacking grip”). The positive influence of game exercise complexes in studying and improving the technique of judo techniques was revealed, which contributed to the significant optimisation of general and special physical fitness and the general physical performance of athletes’ bodies. A comparative analysis of the dynamics of the studied indicators allowed to state that the athletes of the experimental group, who used an experimental training programme using special educational games, had better results compared to the control group. The practical value of the research lies in the recommendation of the introduction of experimental game methods for improving technical training in judo in the system of multi-year sports improvement, namely, at the stage of initial training

Strategic experimentation with asymmetric safe options

We study a two-player game of strategic experimentation with exponential bandits à la (Keller et al., 2005) where the safe-arm payoff is different across players. We show that, as in Das et al. (2020), there exists an equilibrium in cut-off strategies if and only if the difference in safe-arm payoffs is large enough. In the equilibrium in cutoff strategies, the player with the higher safe-arm payoff conducts less experimentation. This feature of the equilibrium offers an explanation for the fact that oftentimes technological innovations are due to startups rather than established market leaders.