Malleable Lies: Communication and Cooperation in a High Stakes TV Game Show

We investigate the credibility of nonbinding preplay statements about cooperative behavior, using data from a high-stakes TV game show in which contestants play a variant on the classic Prisoner’s Dilemma. We depart from the conventional binary approach of classifying statements as promises or not, and propose a more fine-grained two-by-two typology inspired by the idea that lying aversion leads defectors to prefer statements that are malleable to ex-post interpretation as truths. Our empirical analysis shows that statements that carry an element of conditionality or implicitness are associated with a lower likelihood of cooperation, and confirms that malleability is a good criterion for judging the credibility of cheap talk. This paper was accepted by Elke Weber, judgment and decision making.

• 저널Management Science · 65(10) · 4795–4812
• 토픽Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Safety Research
• DOI10.1287/mnsc.2018.3159
• 저자Uyanga Turmunkh, Martijn J. van den Assem, Dennie van Dolder