TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Gächter, Simon
AU  - Lee, Kyeongtae
AU  - Sefton, Martin
AU  - Weber, Till O.
        TI  - The Role of Payoff Parameters for Cooperation in the One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma
        PY  - 2024/Feb/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16814
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16814
        AB  - The prisoner's dilemma (PD) is arguably the most important model of social dilemmas, but our knowledge about how a PD's material payoff structure affects cooperation is incomplete. In this paper we investigate the effect of variation in material payoffs on cooperation, focusing on one-shot PD games where efficiency requires mutual cooperation. We report results from three experiments (N = 1,993): in a preliminary experiment, we vary the payoffs over a large range. In our first main experiment (Study 1), we present a novel design that varies payoffs orthogonally in a within-subjects design. Our second main experiment, Study 2, investigates the orthogonal variation of payoffs in a between-subjects design. In a complementary analysis we also study the closely related payoff indices of normalized loss and gain, and the K-index. The most robust finding of our experiments and the complementary analyses is that cooperation in a PD increases with the gains of mutual cooperation over mutual defection.
        KW  - normalized loss
KW  - normalized gain
KW  - efficiency
KW  - risk
KW  - temptation
KW  - payoff parameters
KW  - cooperation
KW  - prisoner's dilemma
KW  - K-index
KW  - experiments
        ER  -