Personality, payoff information, and behavior in a two-person bargaining game

Previous studies of the influence of personality on behavior in experimental games have provided conflicting and inconclusive results. The present investigation was designed to search on a broad front for personality correlates of behavior in a two-person bargaining game — the game used being a derivation of the Deutsch and Krauss trucking game.Five personality tests covering 54 personality traits were administered to 192 undergraduates at The University of Stirling, Scotland, who were then randomly assigned to two experimental groups. The tests employed were: The sixteen personality factor questionaire, the Guilford/Zimmerman temperament survey, the study of values test, the Edwards personal preference schedule, and the test of social insight.The trucking game was played for 30 trials by 24 male and 24 female dyads in each of the two experimental conditions: Condition 1, where subjects had access to complete information regarding the other's payoffs; and condition 2, where only partial information about the other's payoffs was available. It was hypothesized that behavior in the game would be influenced by (a) amount of information available about the other's payoffs; (b) sex of the players; and (c) players' personality.No differences due to either (a) or (b) were found. An analysis of the data provided by the combined experimental groups, however, successfully located indications of personality effects on game behavior as measured by total joint payoff summed over 30 trials; the total time taken; the number of concessions made to the other player; and first strategy-choice on individual trials. The personality variables found to be highly significant were: emotional stability and radicalism/conservatism (factors C and Q1 of the sixteen personality factor questionnaire); personal relations (factor P of the Guilford/Zimmerman temperament survey); theoretical value (T scale of the study of values test); exhibition (the ‘exh’ variable of the Edwards personal preference schedule); and cooperativeness (scale III of the test of social insight).It is suggested that the relationship of these personality variables to game behavior should be the subject of further investigation.