The Sources of the Communication Gap

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: He, Simin; Offerman, Theo; van de Ven, Jeroen
• 署名单位: Shanghai University of Finance & Economics; University of Amsterdam; Tinbergen Institute; University of Amsterdam
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2518
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 2832-2846
• 关键词: communication; COOPERATION; prisoner's dilemma; Social distance; type detection; COMMITMENT

摘要

Face-to-face communication drastically increases cooperation rates in social dilemmas. We test which factors are the most important drivers of this communication gap. We distinguish three main categories. First, communication may decrease social distance. Second, communication may enable subjects to assess their opponent's cooperativeness (type detection) and condition their own action on that information. Third, communication allows subjects to make promises, which create commitment for subjects who do not want to break a promise. We find that communication increases cooperation very substantially. In our experiment, we find that commitment value is an important factor, but the largest part of the increase can be attributed to type detection. We do not find evidence that social distance plays a role.