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Wall Street Game
Marjorie Corman Aaron
The “Wall Street Game” is an iterative prisoner’s dilemma game, adapted from the Program on Negotiation’s “Win As Much As You Can” (“WAMAYC”) exercise, also an iterative prisoner’s dilemma game. This version involves higher dollar stakes. Its name draws from a much-touted experiment in which participants were given a prisoner’s dilemma game but bearing two different titles: “The Community Game” and “The Wall Street Game”.
The experiment’s results established that when titled – framed – as The Community Game, people were more likely to cooperate and generate optimal points with reasonably equal division. (People moved quickly to agree to “all Y” play, generating a point for each, with points multiplied at bonus rounds, and were less likely to breach those agreements.). When the game was titled – framed – as “The Wall Street Game”, people were far less likely to cooperate and most received lower point totals at the end, both individually and collectively.
Wall Street Game – Teaching Note (pdf)
Wall Street Game – Negotiation (pdf)
Wall Street Game – Score Sheet (pdf)