We study indirect reciprocity and strategic reputation building in an experimental helping game. At any time only half of the subjects can build a reputation. This allows us to study both pure indirect reciprocity that is not contaminated by strategic reputation building and the impact of...

Recent experimental research suggests that people behave more cooperatively when the rules governing a strategic interaction (e.g. a public goods game) are modified democratically than when they are modified exogenously. In a related experiment, I show that people are less likely to unilaterally...

Recent literature has shown that lying behavior in the laboratory can well be explained by a combination of lying costs and reputation concerns. We extend the literature on lying behavior to strategic interactions. As reciprocal behavior is important in many interactions, we study a theoretical...

Most economic models are based on the self-interest hypothesis that assumes that material self-interest exclusively motivates all people. Experimental economists have gathered overwhelming evidence in recent years, however, that systematically refutes the self-interest hypothesis, suggesting...

We propose that there are three determinants of sender behavior in trust games: Beliefs re-garding the amounts returned, risk aversion, and reciprocity. Particularly, we are interested in the role of reciprocity because the possibility of negative expected reciprocal utility may lead to...

We experimentally study how (un)selfish lies are reciprocated—or not—in subsequent economic interactions in a labor market. The experiment was conducted in two sequential stages, where the first stage was a deception game, and the second stage was a gift-exchange game. We find that while...

Why do people engage in costly cooperation with unknown others that they will never meet again? Answers to this evolutionary puzzle emphasize the role of indirect reciprocity (i.e., cooperation through reputation), whereby cooperation is not reciprocated by the recipient but by other members of...