Context and Interpretation in Laboratory Experiments:The Case of Reciprocity

The existing literature acknowledges that a mismatch between the experimenter'sand the subjects' models of an experimental task can adversely aect the interpretation ofdata from laboratory experiments. We discuss why the two common experimental designs(between-subjects and within-subjects) used to conduct experiments may fail to sufficientlyaccount for this concern. An alternative design for laboratory experiments is proposed whichmay alleviate this concern especially in studies of social preferences. The proposed design isused to answer some questions that have attracted continued attention in the literature onsocial preferences in general and reciprocity in particular.