Cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma game I: The effects of asymmetric payoff information and explicit communication

Abstract

The explicit communication structure between pair members was manipulated for six groups of Ss in a two-person, iterated Prisoner's Dilemma game. In addition, Ss in each of the 29 pairs were given differential amounts of information upon which to base their choice strategies. One S was informed only about her own payoffs for each possible combination of choices, while the other pair member was given both sets of payoffs and was aware of having more information. Although cooperation declined over repetitions of the game, group communication structure and amount of payoff information appeared to influence both overall cooperation and the rate at which cooperation declined. Increases in the availability of explicit communication tended to increase both individual and joint cooperation.