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Updated: Jun 23, 2025

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
Reciprocity models revisited: intention factors and reference values
Janna Hinz1, Andreas Nicklisch2, Mey-Ling Sommer3
1Department of Economics, University of Hamburg, von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
Abstract:
We present a test of the two most established reciprocity models, an intention factor model and a reference value model. We test characteristic elements of each model in a series of twelve mini-ultimatum games. Results from online experiments show major differences between actual behavior and predictions of both models: the distance of actual offers to the proposed reference value provides a poor measure for the kindness of offers, while a comparison of offers with extreme offers as suggested by the intention factor model makes offers indiscriminable in richer settings. We discuss possible combinations of both models better describing our observations.
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