Indigenous Communities, Cooperation, and Communication: Taking Experiments to the Field

A series of common-pool-resource field experiments were conducted in eight indigenous communities in India that have very long traditions of shared norms and mutual trust. Two experimental designs are done in all eight villages: a “no-communication” game where no one was allowed verbal or written communication and a “communication game” in which the same five participants were allowed to communicate with each other at the beginning of each round before making their decisions. The findings from these field experiments are substantially different from the findings of similar experiments conducted in experimental laboratories. Subjects tended to cooperate in the first design even in the absence of communication. [Working Paper, No 64 - 11]. URL:[http://www.sandeeonline.org/uploads/documents/publication/941_PUB_WP_64_Rucha_Ostrom.pdf].