INDIAN AND CANADIAN CHOICE BEHAVIOUR IN A MAXIMIZING DIFFERENCE GAME AND IN A GAME OF CHICKEN1

The behaviour of Indian and Canadian male university undergraduates was observed in a mixed-motive maximizing difference game (MDG) and in a game of chicken. It was found that the Indians were more competitive than the Canadians in the MDG and that this difference was considerably reduced in the chicken game. Relative to their choices in the MDG the Canadians were more likely than the Indians to choose competitively in the chicken game. It was suggested that this was due to the Indians greater reluctance to take risks. Other differences based on conditional probabilities of responding also were found and it was argued that the Canadians' cooperation might have been related to their greater propensity to use a “tit-for-tat” response strategy.