Social Framing Effects. Why Do Situational Labels Affect Cooperation?

Abstract

In an otherwise neutrally described Prisoners‟ dilemma experiment, we document that be-havior is more likely to be cooperative when the game is called the Community Game than when it is called the Stock Market Game. However, the difference vanishes when only one of the subjects is in control of their own action. The social framing effect also vanishes when the game is played sequentially. These findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that people‟s desires are affected by social frames. Instead, they suggest that social frames are coordination devices. That is, social frames enter people‟s beliefs rather than their preferences.