A typology of players: Between instinctive and contemplative

Ariel Rubinstein

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    A new typology of players is proposed based on the classification of actions as either instinctive or contemplative. A person's type is the probability of him choosing a contemplative action. To test the typology, results of 10 games are analyzed. Actions in each game were classified depending on whether their response time was more or less, respectively, than the median response time of all subjects who played the game. It is argued that fast actions are more instinctive and slow actions are more contemplative. A subject's contemplative index (CI) is defined as the proportion of games in which he chose a contemplative action. It is found that for 8 of the 10 games, the CI in the other 9 games is positively correlated with a player's choice of a contemplative action in that game (average Spearman correlation of 9%). The CI is used to shed light on the nature of choice in five additional games.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)859-890
    Number of pages32
    JournalQuarterly Journal of Economics
    Volume131
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - May 1 2016

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Economics and Econometrics

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'A typology of players: Between instinctive and contemplative'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this