Collectivism-individualism: Strategic behavior in tacit coordination games

The effect of culture on strategic interaction has been widely explored. However, the effect of the cultural background on focal point selection in tacit coordination games has not yet been examined. To accomplish this goal, in this study we have focused on the individual level of analysis. That is, we constructed a strategic profile to model the behavior of each individual player and then used unsupervised learning methods on the individual data points. We have chosen to examine two groups of participants, Israelis (ICB) and Chinese (CCB), each belonging to a different cultural background representing individualist and collectivist societies, respectively. Clustering the individual strategic profiles has allowed us to gain further insights regarding the differences between the behavioral strategies of each cultural group. The results of this study demonstrate that the cultural background has a profound effect on the strategic profile and on the ability to succeed in tacit coordination games. Moreover, the current study emphasizes the importance of relying on the individual level of analysis and not only on the group level of analysis. The implications of these results and potential future studies are discussed.

文化对策略互动的影响已得到广泛研究。然而，文化背景对默契协调博弈（tacit coordination games）中焦点选择（focal point selection）的影响尚未得到考察。为达成此研究目标，本研究聚焦于个体层面的分析。具体而言，我们构建了个体策略轮廓（strategic profile）以对每位个体玩家的行为进行建模，并针对个体数据点运用无监督学习方法。本研究选取两组被试：以色列被试组（ICB）与中国被试组（CCB），二者分别代表个人主义与集体主义社会的文化背景。对个体策略轮廓进行聚类分析，使我们得以进一步洞悉不同文化群体的行为策略差异。本研究结果表明，文化背景对个体策略轮廓以及在默契协调博弈中取得成功的能力均具有深远影响。此外，本研究强调了仅依赖群体层面分析之外，开展个体层面分析的重要性。本文还讨论了本研究结果的理论启示与未来潜在的研究方向。