GAME-THEORY AND RECIPROCITY IN SOME EXTENSIVE FORM EXPERIMENTAL GAMES

We examine decision making in two-person extensive form game trees usi ng nine treatments that vary matching protocol, payoffs, and payoff in formation. Our objective is to establish replicable principles of coop erative versus noncooperative behavior that involve the use of signali ng, reciprocity, and backward induction strategies, depending on the a vailability of dominated direct punishing strategies and the probabili ty of repeated interaction with the same partner. Contrary to the pred ictions of game theory, we find substantial support for cooperation un der complete information even in various single-play treatments.