Replication Data for: Numeric vs Natural Language Messages in Experimental Cheap Talk Games

We compare different forms of communication in the context of cheap talk sender-receiver games. While previous experiments find evidence supporting the comparative statics prediction that more preference divergence leads to less information transmission, there is also a consistent pattern of overcommunication and exaggeration, not predicted by theory, in which subjects convey more information than predicted in equilibrium. The latter of these findings may be due to the restricted nature of the message space in most experimental cheap talk games, encouraging subjects to engage in exaggeration artificially, rather than allowing it to emerge naturally. We tested this hypothesis with an incentivized lab experiment, and found evidence both phenomena persist with natural language (text-based) communication. Moreover, we probe the consequences of this expanded message space for outcomes, showing that senders benefit more than receivers, but that the most notable effect is that text messages improve efficiency.

本研究针对廉价磋商（cheap talk）发送者-接收者博弈场景，对比了不同沟通形式的表现。尽管过往实验发现有证据支持比较静态分析的预测：偏好分歧程度越高，信息传递越少；但同时也观测到了理论未予预判的、稳定存在的过度沟通与夸大表述现象——即实验受试者传递的信息量高于均衡状态下的理论预测值。上述两类发现中，后者或许源于多数廉价磋商博弈实验中信息空间受限的特性：该特性会诱导受试者人为进行夸大表述，而非使其自然产生该行为。本研究通过带激励机制的实验室实验对该假说进行了验证，结果表明，在自然语言（基于文本的）沟通场景下，上述两种现象均依然存在。此外，本研究还探究了该拓展后信息空间对博弈结果的影响，结果显示：发送者的获益多于接收者，而最显著的效应是文本沟通能够提升博弈整体效率。