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Short summary

Coordinating on the efficient and fair long run outcome (EFO) in the repeated versions of the battle of the sexes and the stag hunt games requires participants to share intentions and beliefs. Does the ability to coordinate develop or is it innate? By studying the behavior of children and adolescents (ages 7 to 16), we show a significant and remarkably stable increase with age in the ability to coordinate on the EFO. We also observe an ability to rapidly learn and improve play at all ages. Still, coordination in the battle of the sexes is more difficult than in the stag hunt game, which reflects the extra difficulty of coordination in strategies, as compared to actions.

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Task 1

Participants complete two repeated battle of the sexes (BoS) supergames with symmetric payoffs.
Story: a player has either a red or a green scale and a black ball. They need to place the ball in either scale. If both players place the ball on the same scale, there is coordination, and the highest payoff goes to the owner of that scale. Otherwise, there is miscoordination and low payoffs for both players.

BoS screenshot

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Task 2

Participants complete two repeated stag hunt (SH) supergames with symmetric payoffs.

Story: each player has either a blue star or a yellow star. They need to place their star on or outside a carpet. Placing the star outside the carpet gives a safe payoff. However, if both place the star on the carpet (the risky option), they achieve the maximum payoff.

SH screenshot

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Participants

220 school-age subjects from 2nd to 10th grade at the Lyc´ee International of Los Angeles (LILA), a French-English bilingual private school in Los Angeles.

First adult control: 70 undergraduates at the University of Southern California

Second adult control: 30 teachers at LILA

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Prediction

The efficient and fair long run outcomes in BOS consists of alternating between the scales.

The efficient and fair long run outcomes in SH consists of always placing the star on the carpet.

The ability to coordinate is expected to develop with age.

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Quick results

There is a significant and stable increase in the ability to coordinate in the EFO with age.

The ability is greater in SH (where players need to coordinate on an action) than in BOS (where players need to coordinate on a strategy).

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Reference

I. Brocas and J. Carrillo, "Dynamic coordination in efficient and fair strategies: a developmental perspective,” LABEL working paper.

Read the paper HERE