Exploiting a cognitive bias promotes cooperation in social dilemma experiments

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Cognitive Psychology
• Game Theory

Background:

• The decoy effect describes how an inferior option influences choices.
• This bias is well-documented in decision-making research.
• Its application in strategic interactions like game theory is less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of the decoy effect on cooperation in a repeated prisoner's dilemma game.
• To determine if introducing a decoy option influences prosocial behavior.
• To assess the effect of the decoy on the success of cooperative strategies.

Main Methods:

• An experiment involving human volunteers playing a modified repeated prisoner's dilemma game.
• The game included standard 'cooperate' and 'defect' options plus a novel 'reward' decoy option.
• Behavioral data on choice selection and cooperation rates were recorded.

Main Results:

• The decoy option was rarely chosen by participants.
• However, its mere presence significantly increased overall cooperativeness.
• Cooperative individuals experienced a higher likelihood of success in the game.

Conclusions:

• The decoy effect can be leveraged to promote voluntary prosocial action.
• Introducing a decoy option enhances cooperation, even if not directly selected.
• This strategy shows potential for application in various collective endeavors.