Guilt aversion in (new) games: Does partners' payoff vulnerability matter?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Attanasi, Giuseppe; Rimbaud, Claire; Villeval, Marie Claire
• 署名单位: Sapienza University Rome; Universite PSL; Universite Paris-Dauphine; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); CNRS - Institute for Humanities & Social Sciences (INSHS); Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon (ENS de LYON); Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1; Universite Jean Monnet; Universite Lyon 2; IZA Institute Labor Economics
• 刊物名称: GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0899-8256
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2023.09.004
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 690-717
• 关键词: Guilt aversion; vulnerability; Psychological game theory; dictator game; Trust game; experiment

摘要

We investigate whether players' guilt aversion is modulated by their co-players vulnerability. In new variations of a three-player Trust game, we manipulate payoff-vulnerability and endowment-vulnerability. The former (standard) vulnerability arises when a player's material payoff depends on another player's action. The latter arises when a player's initial endowment is entrusted to another player. Treatments vary whether trustees can condition their decision on the belief of a co-player who is payoff-vulnerable and/or endowment-vulnerable, or not vulnerable at all, and the decision rights of the vulnerable player. We find that trustees' guilt aversion is insensitive to both the dimension of the co-player's vulnerability and the decision rights of the co-player. Guilt is activated even absent the vulnerability of their co-players. Rather, players' guilt is triggered by the willingness to respond to their co-player's beliefs on their strategy.