Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-v2ckm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T17:16:44.362Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social learning in coordination games: does status matter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Catherine C. Eckel  and
Rick K. Wilson
Catherine C. Eckel*
Affiliation:
School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA
Rick K. Wilson*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We report the results of experiments designed to test the impact of social status on learning in a coordination game. In the experiment, all subjects observe the play of an agent who either has high status or low status. In one treatment the agent is another player in the game; in the other the agent is a simulated player. Status is assigned within the experiment based on answers to a trivia quiz. The coordination game has two equilibria: one is payoff-dominant but risky, and the other is risk-dominant. The latter is most commonly chosen in experiments where there is no coordination device. We find that a commonly observed agent enhances coordination on the payoff-dominant equilibrium more often when the agent has high status.

Keywords

Coordination gamePayoff dominanceRisk dominanceStatus

JEL classification

C7: Game Theory and Bargaining Theory C92: Laboratory, Group Behavior Z13: Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology • Language • Social and Economic Stratification
Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 10 , Issue 3: Special issue of Experimental Economics in honor of Raymond C. Battalio: Coordination Games , September 2007 , pp. 317 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Economic Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, S. P., Goeree, J. K., & Holt, C. A. (2001). Minimum-effort coordination games: stochastic potential and logit equilibrium. Games and Economic Behavior, 34(2), 177–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, S. P., Goeree, J. K., & Holt, C. A. (2002). The logit equilibrium: a perspective on intuitive behavioral anomalies. Southern Economic Journal, 69(1), 21–47.Google Scholar
Bala, V., & Goyal, S. (1998). Learning from neighbors. Review of Economic Studies, 65, 595–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, S. B., & Eckel, C. (1996). Buying status: experimental evidence on status in negotiation. Psychology and Marketing, 13(4), 381–405.3.0.CO;2-7>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, S. B., & Eckel, C. (1998). The economic value of status. Journal of Socio-Economics, XXVII, 495514.Google Scholar
Ball, S. B., Eckel, C., Grossman, P., & Zame, W. (2001). Status in markets. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116(1), 161–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. S. (1971). The economics of discrimination (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. S. (1974). A theory of social interactions. Journal of Political Economy, LXXXII, 1063–1093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandts, J., & MacLeod, W. B. (1995). Equilibrium selection in experimental games with recommended play. Games and Economic Behavior, 11, 36–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, P. M. (1994). Learning from experience, reference points, and decision costs. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 27, 381–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camerer, C., & Ho, T.-H. (1999). Experience-weighted attraction learning in normal form games. Econometrica, 67, 827–874.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, R. W., DeJong, D. V., Forsythe, R., & Ross, T. W. (1990). Selection criteria in coordination games: some experimental results. American Economic Review, 80, 218–233.Google Scholar
Duffy, J., & Kornienko, T. (2005). Does competition affect giving? An experimental study (Working Paper). Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Eckel, C., & Wilson, R. (2000). Social learning in a social hierarchy: an experimental study. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Convention in Washington, D.C., 16-22 February.Google Scholar
Gil-White, F., & Henrich, J. (2001). The evolution of prestige: freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22, 165–196.Google Scholar
Kumru, C., & Vesterlund, L. (2005). The effect of status on voluntary contribution (Working Paper). Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
McKelvey, R. D., & Palfrey, T. R. (1995). Quantal response equilibria in normal form games. Games and Economic Behavior, 7, 6–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochs, J. (1995). Coordination problems. In Kagel, J. & Roth, A. (Eds.), Handbook of experimental economics (pp. 195–251). Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Offerman, T., & Sonnemans, J. (1998). Learning and experience by imitating successful others. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 34, 559–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2004). Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roth, A. E., & Erev, I. (1998). Predicting how people play games: reinforcement learning in experimental games with unique, mixed-strategy equilibria. American Economic Review, 88, 848–881.Google Scholar
Schelling, T. (1960). The strategy of conflict. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schotter, A., & Sopher, B. (2003). Social learning and coordination conventions in intergenerational games: an experimental study. Journal of Political Economy, 111, 498–529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Huyck, J. B., Battalio, R. C., & Beil, R. (1990). Tacit coordination games, strategic uncertainty, and coordination failure. American Economic Review, 80, 234–248.Google Scholar
Van Huyck, J. B., Battalio, R. C., & Beil, R. (1991). Strategic uncertainty, equilibrium selection principles, and coordination failure. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106, 885–911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Huyck, J. B., Battalio, R. C., & Rankin, F. W. (1997). On the origin of convention: evidence from coordination games. Economic Journal, 107, 576–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, M., & Foschi, M. (1988). Overview of status generalization, In: M. Webster & M. Foschi (Eds.), Status generalization: new theory and research. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Chap. 1.Google Scholar