___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *SOCIAL ECONOMIC GAMES: DICTATOR GAME* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Date: 10-22-2012 last updated: 02-27-2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 02-27-2025 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Dictator Game, a socio-economic game about the allocation of monetary resources. In the Dictator Game participants get the choice to allocate money in either a more pro-social or less pro-social manner without having to take a possible response/revenge of their opponent into account. The implemented procedure is based on: Brocklebank, S., Lewis, G.J, & Bates, T.C. (2011). Personality accounts for stable preferences and expectations across a range of simple games. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 881-886. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A participant (= Player B) gets to allocate money (resources) that is presented in a decision tree format to another Player A and herself. Participant (Player B) has the choice to allocate the money in a more or less "prosocial" manner. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 3 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The fields in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'dictatorgame_raw*.iqdat' (a separate script for each participant) build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) date, time: date and time script was run subject, group: with the current subject/groupnumber session: with the current session id blockCode, blockNum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) trialCode, trialNum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) Note: trialNum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those that do not store data to the data file. gameCounter: tracks the number of games played branch: 0 = designated "left" amounts displayed on left; 1 = designated "left" amounts displayed on right; leftAvalue-rightBvalue: contain the designated 'left' and 'right' value amounts for player A and player B !!! these amounts can appear on the left OR right of the decision tree responseBranch: the actually selected response branch B1 (choice B on the left) or B2 (choice B on the right) !!!! Note: if the participant selected a designated 'left' amount but the amount was presented on the right, ResponseBranch = B2 but response = left (designated 'left' amount) If a participant always selects the designated 'left' values, Response = left for all trials, but ResponseBranch will reflect the actual branch chosen. response: the participant's response (choice of designated 'left' vs. 'right' amount) latency: the response latency (in ms) countLeft: sums up all designated 'left' choices countRight: sums up all designated 'right' choices totalComputer: the total amount Player A wins totalParticipant: the total amount Player B wins (2) Summary data file: 'dictatorgame_summary*.iqdat' (Inquisit Lab: one data file per participant) inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) startDate: date script was run startTime: time script was started subjectId: assigned subject id number groupId: assigned group id number sessionId: assigned session id number elapsedTime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) ///parameters settings showOpponentPic: 1 = a picture of an opponent is displayed on decision tree screen (fine tune picture under STIMULUS -> picture.opponent] 0 = no opponent picture is displayed (default) showComputerTotal: 1 = show win status of Player A; 0 = do not show win status of player A (default) showParticipantTotal: 1 = show win status of Player B; 0 = do not show win status of player B (default) posttrialPause: sets the posttrialpause (default = 1000ms) ///data: countLeft: sums up all designated 'left' choices countRight: sums up all designated 'right' choices totalComputer: the total amount Player A wins totalParticipant: the total amount Player B wins ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1) Number of Games Run: This script runs 6 dictator game trials (default). NOTE: to change the number of games played, edit a) LISTS: list.leftA, list.leftB, list.rightA, list.rightB to reflect the desired number of trials/amounts b) BLOCK: adjust the number of trials run under block.Dictator 2) Amounts: The designated 'left' and 'right' amounts allocated are stored in list.leftA, list.leftB, list.rightA and list.rightB. The default amounts provided in this script are the ones used by Brocklebank et al (2011). Designated 'left' = amounts that Brocklebank et al (2011) report to be the 'left' amounts in table 1. (in this particular script, the designated 'left' responses could be interpreted as the more "prosocial" choices) The amounts can be easily adapted by each experimenter. Furthermore, by default the amounts are presented in a sequential order for each participant. To change presentation to random, change list.trialOrder. 3) Within-participant control of response keys: Presentation of designated 'left' amounts randomized without replacement within participants. Of the 6 games (default), 3 randomly determined trials will display the designated 'left' choices on the left branch, the remaining 3 will display them on the right branch. !!!NOTE: => values.responseBranch reflects the actual branch chosen by the participant. => 'response' reflects if participant chose the designated 'left or 'right' amounts ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ optional opponent pics -> see section Editable Stimuli ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond Software as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html files. To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Windows). ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITABLE CODE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc. Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code to further customize your experiment. The parameters you can change are: /pictureintro: = 0 1 = a separate picture introduction of the co-player is displayed before decision tree screens come up (fine tune picture under STIMULUS -> picture.opponentPic] 0 = no separate picture introduction of the co-player (default) /showOpponentPic: 1 = a picture of an opponent is displayed on decision tree screen (fine tune picture under STIMULUS -> picture.opponent] 0 = no opponent picture is displayed (default) /showComputerTotal: 1 = show win status of Player A; 0 = do not show win status of player A (default) /showParticipantTotal: 1 = show win status of Player B; 0 = do not show win status of player B (default) /posttrialPause: sets the posttrialpause (default = 1000ms)