Wording and gender effects in a Game of Chicken. An explorative experimental study

In this short paper, we run an experiment to investigate the influence of a very basic change in the labelling of the strategies on cooperative behaviour in a standard Game of Chicken. Our between-subject experimental design involves two treatments. The only difference between them is that we introduce either a socially-oriented wording ('I cooperate'/'I do not cooperate') or colours (Red/Blue) to designate strategies. Our study replicates the findings obtained in a previous experimental study based on a Game of Chicken framework with incomplete information and a within-subject design: the level of cooperation appears to be higher in the socially-oriented context, due to a change in women behaviour only.