Satisfaction and Learning: an experimental game to measure happiness

This paper aims to illustrate the results of an experimental analysis in which - along with organizational coordination - the participants' level of satisfaction was measured. As in the analysis of individual happiness, satisfaction is here measured by explicitly asking players. A series of interesting results emerges: (1) it is possible to measure satisfaction in an experiment; (2) as expected, satisfaction is mainly affected by the score; given this value, there are, nevertheless, other relevant elements affecting it; (3) experience and learning seem also to play a relevant role in influencing the evolution of satisfaction. In fact, a training in a situation in which coordination is difficult, improve the mean levels of satisfaction in the next period. A training in a situation in which players have to interact with strongly opportunistic partners, make players' satisfaction more penalized by the opportunism of the others. These results can be related to the cognitive literature on individual decision making and on Herbert Simon's satisficing model.