Identifying cooperative behavior: some experimental results in a prisoner's dilemma game

In recent years, experimental economists have discovered that people exhibit different patterns of cooperative behavior. This paper presents findings from a face-to-face experiment that analyzed whether individuals who possess a willingness to cooperate can credibly signal it and whether it is recognizable by the partner. Results revealed that both capabilities, signaling and recognizing, depend upon the individual's propensity to cooperate. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.