Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 3, 2026
06:18
The Collective Trust Game: An Online Group Adaptation of the Trust Game Based on the HoneyComb Paradigm
Published on: October 20, 2022
2.6K
Onymity promotes cooperation in social dilemma experiments
Zhen Wang1,2, Marko Jusup3, Rui-Wu Wang4,5
1Center for OPTical IMagery Analysis and Learning (OPTIMAL), Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.
Science Advances
|April 25, 2017
Summary
Reducing anonymity boosts cooperation and payoffs in evolutionary games. Making interactions identifiable encourages prosocial behavior, countering the tendency for defection when players remain anonymous.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary game theory
- Behavioral economics
Background:
- Explaining the persistence of cooperation is a 150-year-old scientific challenge.
- Mechanisms like kin selection and reciprocity have been proposed to explain cooperation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of anonymity on cooperation in repeated Prisoner's Dilemma games.
- To determine if reducing anonymity promotes prosocial behavior and higher payoffs.
Main Methods:
- Conducted repeated Prisoner's Dilemma experiments.
- Compared outcomes between anonymous and onymous (identifiable) pairwise interactions.
Main Results:
- Onymity significantly increased cooperation frequency and median payoffs compared to anonymity.
- A fundamental shift in strategy correlation with player rank was observed under onymity, rewarding prosocial actions.
Conclusions:
- Reducing anonymity effectively promotes cooperation and increases payoffs for cooperators.
- Anonymity can favor defection, while onymity incentivizes prosocial strategies.
Related Concept Videos
00:57Deindividuation
31.0K
Deindividuation is a form of social influence on an individual’s behavior such that the individual engages in unusual or non-normal behavior while in a group setting. Why? Because in these group settings, the individual no longer sees themselves as an individual anymore, disinhibiting their behavior and personal restraint.
31.0K
00:52Social Proof
32.5K
Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.
32.5K
01:20Conformity
48.3K
Conformity is the change in a person’s behavior to go along with the group, even if that person does not agree with the group.
48.3K
01:04Social Facilitation
36.7K
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
36.7K
04:49Robbers Cave
14.9K
During the 1950s, the landmark Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated that when groups must compete with one another, intergroup conflict, hostility, and even violence may result. At the Oklahoman summer camp, two troops of boys—termed the Rattlers and the Eagles—took part in a week-long tournament. During this time, their negativity culminated in derogatory name-calling, fistfights, and even vandalism and destruction of property. However, this work also revealed that such tension...
14.9K
02:09Bystander Effect
10.4K
The discussion of bullying highlights the problem of witnesses not intervening to help a victim. This is a common occurrence, as the following well-publicized event demonstrates. In 1964, in Queens, New York, a 19-year-old woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked by a person with a knife near the back entrance to her apartment building and again in the hallway inside her apartment building. When the attack occurred, she screamed for help numerous times and eventually died from her stab wounds.
10.4K