Replication package: Dataset and stata-do-file for analysis in "Intragroup communication in social dilemmas: An artefactual public good field experiment in small-scale communities"

This dataset was used for the analysis in "Intragroup communication in social dilemmas: An artefactual public good field experiment in small-scale communities". The data was collected in Namibia in 2017 as part of the SASSCAL research project by Nils Christian Hoenow and Adrian Pourviseh as members of the Chair for Development and Cooperative Economics at the University of Marburg. Funded by the Southern African Science Service Center for Climate Change and Adaptive Land-UseManagement (SASSCAL) through the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Grant No. 01LG1201B). Article Title: Intragroup communication in social dilemmas: An artefactual public good field experiment in small-scale communities Authors: Nils Christian Hoenow* and Adrian Pourviseh** *RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen, Germany and & School of Business and Economics, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany **School of Business and Economics, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany Abstract: Communication is well-known to increase cooperation rates in social dilemma situations, but the exact mechanisms behind this remain largely unclear. This study examines the impact of communication on public good provisioning in an artefactual field experiment conducted with 216 villagers from small, rural communities in northern Namibia. In line with previous experimental findings, we observe a strong increase in cooperation when face-to-face communication is allowed before decision-making. We additionally introduce a condition in which participants cannot discuss the dilemma but talk to their group members about an unrelated topic prior to learning about the public good game. It turns out that this condition already leads to higher cooperation rates, albeit not as high as in the condition in which discussions about the social dilemma are possible. The setting in small communities also allows investigating the effects of pre-existing social relationships between group members and their interaction with communication.We find that both types of communication are primarily effective among socially more distant group members, which suggests that communication and social ties work as substitutes in increasing cooperation. Further analyses rule out better comprehension of the game and increased mutual expectations of one’s group members’ contributions as drivers for the communication effect. Finally, we discuss the role of personal and injunctive norms to keep commitments made during discussions.

本数据集用于《社会困境中的群体内沟通：小型社区的人工现场公共品实验》（Intragroup communication in social dilemmas: An artefactual public good field experiment in small-scale communities）的分析工作。
数据采集于2017年的纳米比亚，由马尔堡大学发展与合作经济学教席的尼尔斯·克里斯蒂安·霍诺（Nils Christian Hoenow）与阿德里安·普尔维什（Adrian Pourviseh）作为南部非洲科学服务中心（SASSCAL）研究项目的组成部分完成。本研究由南部非洲气候变化与适应性土地利用管理科学服务中心（SASSCAL）通过德国联邦教育与研究部资助（资助编号：01LG1201B）。

论文标题：《社会困境中的群体内沟通：小型社区的人工现场公共品实验》
作者：尼尔斯·克里斯蒂安·霍诺*与阿德里安·普尔维什**
*德国埃森RWI莱布尼茨经济研究所（RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research）暨马尔堡大学商业与经济学院；**马尔堡大学商业与经济学院，德国马尔堡

摘要：众所周知，沟通可提升社会困境情境下的合作水平，但其背后的具体机制仍未完全明晰。本研究借助在纳米比亚北部小型农村社区开展的、共有216名村民参与的人工现场公共品实验，探讨沟通对公共品供给的影响。与既往实验研究结果一致，我们观察到，在决策前允许面对面沟通时，合作水平会显著提升。此外，我们设置了一种实验条件：参与者无法讨论社会困境议题，仅需在了解公共品博弈前与同组成员讨论无关话题。结果显示，该条件下的合作水平同样有所提升，尽管不及可讨论社会困境的实验条件。小型社区的实验场景还允许我们探讨群体成员间既存社会关系及其与沟通的交互效应。我们发现，两种沟通方式均主要在社会距离更远的群体成员间发挥作用，这表明沟通与社会纽带在提升合作水平方面可作为替代手段。进一步分析排除了对博弈规则的更好理解以及对同组成员贡献水平的相互预期作为沟通效应驱动因素的可能。最后，我们讨论了个人规范与指令性规范在维持讨论期间所做承诺中的作用。