TY - JOUR
T1 - Attribution and reciprocity
AU - Sebald, Alexander Christopher
N1 - JEL classification: D01, C70
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - People infer causes and assign responsibilities for situations they find themselves in. In contradiction with classical presumptions about human behavior, it has been found that the assignment of responsibilities influences people's perceptions about the (un)kindness of others. Kindness perceptions, in turn, influence behavior. Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger [Dufwenberg, M., Kirchsteiger, G., 2004. A theory of sequential reciprocity. Games Econ. Behav. 47 (2), 268-298] formalize this empirical finding in their ‘theory of sequential reciprocity'. This paper extends their analysis by moves of chance. More precisely, an extended framework is presented which allows for the analysis of strategic interactions of reciprocal agents in situations in which material outcomes also depend on chance. Moves of chance influence the attribution of responsibilities, people's perceptions about the (un)kindness of others and, hence, their reciprocal behavior. Furthermore, with the help of two applications it is demonstrated how this framework can be used to explain experimental findings showing that people react very differently in outcomewise-identical situations depending on the moves of chance involved.
AB - People infer causes and assign responsibilities for situations they find themselves in. In contradiction with classical presumptions about human behavior, it has been found that the assignment of responsibilities influences people's perceptions about the (un)kindness of others. Kindness perceptions, in turn, influence behavior. Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger [Dufwenberg, M., Kirchsteiger, G., 2004. A theory of sequential reciprocity. Games Econ. Behav. 47 (2), 268-298] formalize this empirical finding in their ‘theory of sequential reciprocity'. This paper extends their analysis by moves of chance. More precisely, an extended framework is presented which allows for the analysis of strategic interactions of reciprocal agents in situations in which material outcomes also depend on chance. Moves of chance influence the attribution of responsibilities, people's perceptions about the (un)kindness of others and, hence, their reciprocal behavior. Furthermore, with the help of two applications it is demonstrated how this framework can be used to explain experimental findings showing that people react very differently in outcomewise-identical situations depending on the moves of chance involved.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - psychological games
KW - attribution theory
KW - procedural concerns
U2 - 10.1016/j.geb.2009.07.004
DO - 10.1016/j.geb.2009.07.004
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0899-8256
VL - 68
SP - 339
EP - 352
JO - Games and Economic Behavior
JF - Games and Economic Behavior
IS - 1
ER -