An experimental study of intra- and international cooperation: Chinese and American play in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game

Abstract

We study whether intra- and international groups have different cooperation rates in the Prisoner's Dilemma Game. We report on an experiment in which university students in China and America engage in a single iteration of the game, complete belief elicitation tasks regarding their counterparts' play, and complete a survey including attitudinal measurements regarding their in- and out-group attitudes. We find that Chinese overall cooperation rates are less than American ones. Further, female participants are more cooperative than males. With respect to international cooperation, Chinese participants accurately estimate the likelihood of cooperative behavior of their American counterparts, while Americans overestimate the same likelihood of their Chinese counterparts. Our results further show that Chinese participants cooperate more conditionally than American ones. Finally, we find a more positive attitude towards one's living country is related to less international cooperative behavior, and a more positive attitude towards the other country is related to more international cooperation.