TY  - JOUR
AU  - List,John A.
TI  - Friend or Foe? A Natural Experiment of the Prisoner's Dilemma
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12097
PY  - 2006
Y2  - March 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12097
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12097.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John List
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 301/405-1288
Fax: 301/314-9091
E-Mail: jlist@uchicago.edu
AB  - This study examines data drawn from the game show Friend or Foe?, which is similar to the classic prisoner%u2019s dilemma tale:  partnerships are endogenously determined, players work together to earn money, after which, they play a one-shot prisoner%u2019s dilemma game over large stakes: varying from $200 to (potentially) more than $22,000.  If one were to conduct such an experiment in the laboratory, the cost to gather the data would be well over $350,000.  The data reveal several interesting insights; perhaps most provocatively, they suggest that even though the game is played in front of an audience of millions of viewers, there is some evidence consistent with a model of discrimination.  The observed patterns of social discrimination are unanticipated, however.  For example, there is evidence consistent with the notion that certain populations have a general %u201Cdistaste%u201D for older participants.
ER  -