Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1017/s1930297500009116
James Matthew Thom, U. Afzal, Natalie Gold
Games of pure mutual interest require players to coordinate their choices without being able to communicate. One way to achieve this is through team-reasoning, asking ‘what should we choose’, rather than just assessing one’s own options from an individual perspective. It has been suggested that team-reasoning is more likely when individuals are encouraged to think of those they are attempting to coordinate with as members of an in-group. In two studies, we examined the effects of group identity, measured by the ‘Inclusion of Other in Self’ (IOS) scale, on performance in nondescript coordination games, where there are several equilibria but no descriptions that a player can use to distinguish any one strategy from the others apart from the payoff from coordinating on it. In an online experiment, our manipulation of group identity did not have the expected effect, but we found a correlation of .18 between IOS and team-reasoning-consistent choosing. Similarly, in self-reported strategies, those who reported trying to pick an option that stood out (making it easier to coordinate on) also reported higher IOS scores than did those who said they tended to choose the option with the largest potential payoff. In a follow-up study in the lab, participants played either with friends or with strangers. Experiment 2 replicated the relationship between IOS and team-reasoning in strangers but not in friends. Instead, friends’ behavior was related to their expectations of what their partners would do. A hierarchical cluster analysis showed that 46.4% of strangers played a team reasoning strategy, compared to 20.6% of friends. We suggest that the strangers who group identify may have been team reasoning but friends may have tried to use their superior knowledge of their partners to try to predict their strategy.
{"title":"Testing team reasoning: Group identification is related to coordination\u0000 in pure coordination games","authors":"James Matthew Thom, U. Afzal, Natalie Gold","doi":"10.1017/s1930297500009116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1930297500009116","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Games of pure mutual interest require players to coordinate their\u0000 choices without being able to communicate. One way to achieve this is\u0000 through team-reasoning, asking ‘what should we choose’, rather than just\u0000 assessing one’s own options from an individual perspective. It has been\u0000 suggested that team-reasoning is more likely when individuals are encouraged\u0000 to think of those they are attempting to coordinate with as members of an\u0000 in-group. In two studies, we examined the effects of group identity,\u0000 measured by the ‘Inclusion of Other in Self’ (IOS) scale, on performance in\u0000 nondescript coordination games, where there are several equilibria but no\u0000 descriptions that a player can use to distinguish any one strategy from the\u0000 others apart from the payoff from coordinating on it. In an online\u0000 experiment, our manipulation of group identity did not have the expected\u0000 effect, but we found a correlation of .18 between IOS and\u0000 team-reasoning-consistent choosing. Similarly, in self-reported strategies,\u0000 those who reported trying to pick an option that stood out (making it easier\u0000 to coordinate on) also reported higher IOS scores than did those who said\u0000 they tended to choose the option with the largest potential payoff. In a\u0000 follow-up study in the lab, participants played either with friends or with\u0000 strangers. Experiment 2 replicated the relationship between IOS and\u0000 team-reasoning in strangers but not in friends. Instead, friends’ behavior\u0000 was related to their expectations of what their partners would do. A\u0000 hierarchical cluster analysis showed that 46.4% of strangers played a team\u0000 reasoning strategy, compared to 20.6% of friends. We suggest that the\u0000 strangers who group identify may have been team reasoning but friends may\u0000 have tried to use their superior knowledge of their partners to try to\u0000 predict their strategy.","PeriodicalId":48045,"journal":{"name":"Judgment and Decision Making","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46164602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}