Effects of Sex Role in a Maximizing Difference Game

Abstract

Same-sex dyads of Canadian males and females and mixed-sex dyads played 100 trials of a maximizing difference game in a replication of an experiment which used Flemish subjects performed by McNeel et al. (1972). It was found, in contrast to the Belgian investigation, and in line with earlier experiments in the United States which had used the Prisoner's Dilemma game, that the like-sex female dyads were most competitive, followed by the like-sex male dyads. The males and females in the mixed-sex dyads were least competitive and not different from one another. Simply being paired with a female had an immediate effect on the males but the females appeared to be more affected by the response strategy of the males. It was argued that the most likely factor accounting for the results was the greater use of "tit-for-tat" responding by the males. Research concerned with cultural differences and the antecedents of strategy preferences is suggested.