Communication and Guilt in a Prisoner's Dilemma

Miettinen, Topi; Suetens, Sigrid

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1092787

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Communication and Guilt in a Prisoner's Dilemma

CentER Discussion Paper No. 2008-12

19 Pages Posted: 13 Feb 2008

See all articles by Topi Miettinen

Topi Miettinen

Hanken School of Economics - Helsinki Graduate School of Economics

Sigrid Suetens

University of Antwerp - Faculty of Applied Economics; Tilburg University

Date Written: February 2008

Abstract

In this paper we measure experienced guilt in a prisoner's dilemma experiment with pre-play communication. We find that feelings of guilt only arise in the case of unilateral defection and that they are stronger when players have mutually agreed to cooperate. We also find that fining unilateral defection reduces feelings of guilt.

Keywords: cooperation, guilt, experiments, prisoner's dilemma, preplay communication

JEL Classification: C91, D74

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Miettinen, Topi and Suetens, Sigrid, Communication and Guilt in a Prisoner's Dilemma (February 2008). CentER Discussion Paper No. 2008-12, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1092787 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1092787