EXPERIENCING IMPARTIALITY TO INVOKE FAIRNESS IN THE N-PD - SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Subjects play a 5-person Prisoner's Dilemma both from an impartial poi nt of view and in a regular fashion to determine whether 1) Concerns f or fairness increase cooperative behavior; 2) Play of a Prisoner's Dil emma from an impartial point of view results in significantly higher l evels of cooperation than does normal play; 3) Concern for fairness ha s greater explanatory force in explaining cooperation in impartial pla ys of the Prisoner's Dilemma than in normal plays; and 4) Experience w ith impartial play of a Prisoner's Dilemma sensitizes subjects to norm ative imperatives and results in higher levels of cooperation in subse quent normal plays of Prisoner's Dilemmas. The first and second hypoth eses are supported, the third is inverted, and the fourth is not suppo rted. Concern for fairness is demonstrated to play a complex role in e xplaining cooperative behavior in regular plays of the game.