Evidence of Homo Economicus? Findings from Experiment on Evolutionary Prisoners' Dilemma Game

33 Pages Posted: 21 Feb 2011

See all articles by Rimawan Pradiptyo

Rimawan Pradiptyo

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) - Department of Economics

Banoon Sasmitasiwi

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) - Department of Economics

Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo

Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada

Date Written: February 21, 2011

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze subjects’ behavior in an experiment on evolutionary process of prisoners’ dilemma game. The experiment has been designed by using sixteen one-shot prisoners’ dilemma games with payoffs perturbation and random matching players under perfect information. The subjects of the experiment were students and staff in Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. In contrast to previous studies, for instance Selten and Stoecker’s (1986) Cooper’s, et al. (1991, 1996), the majority of the subjects in this experiment tend to choose Nash equilibrium strategy consistently from the first game. The result showed that the proportion of the Nash equilibrium outcome was consistently in the range of 85%-88%, whereas the tacit cooperation or Pareto optimum outcome was about 1%-2%. There were evidence that payoffs perturbation influences players’ decision. In contrast to the previous studies above, the results from this study revealed that the vast majority of the subjects tend to choose the dominant strategy as prescribed in Game Theory.

Keywords: Prisoner’s Dilemma, Experiment, Random-Matching, Payoff-Perturbation, Framing Effect

JEL Classification: C73, C91

Suggested Citation

Pradiptyo, Rimawan and Sasmitasiwi, Banoon and Sahadewo, Gumilang Aryo, Evidence of Homo Economicus? Findings from Experiment on Evolutionary Prisoners' Dilemma Game (February 21, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1765923 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1765923

Rimawan Pradiptyo (Contact Author)

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) - Department of Economics ( email )

Bulaksumur
Sleman
Yogyakarta, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55281
Indonesia

HOME PAGE: http://rimawan.staff.ugm.ac.id

Banoon Sasmitasiwi

Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) - Department of Economics ( email )

Bulaksumur
Sleman
Yogyakarta, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55281
Indonesia

Gumilang Aryo Sahadewo

Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Gadjah Mada ( email )

Jalan Humaniora 1
Bulaksumur
Yogyakarta, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta 55281
Indonesia
62274548510 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://sahadewo.wordpress.com

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
473
Abstract Views
2,821
Rank
111,172
PlumX Metrics