Welcome to experiment! If you make decisions carefully under the rules described in this instruction, you will get the corresponding payoff in the experiment. After the experiment, your total payoff is 5 yuan as your participation fee and the payoff you earn in the experiment.
This experiment is composed of 12 trials and the decision number is indicated in the top left corner of the screen. You will be randomly matched with another student. Neither of you will ever know the other’s identity.
There are two options in the experiment: option A and option B. In each trial, your counterpart has to choose one of the options. If he/she chooses option A, his/her return is X yuan, your return is Y yuan; if he/she chooses option B, his/her return is M yuan, your return is N yuan. Only you are informed about the monetary payoffs of X, Y, M and N, which your counterpart will never know.
The specific payoff distribution in each option will be presented to you as followings:
Option A: ¥Y to you and ¥X to the other student.
Option B: ¥M to you and ¥N to the other student.
Your counterpart will not know the monetary payments associated with each option. The information you sent in a message is the only information he/she will have. Now you are asked to choose one of the following two possible messages, which will be sent to your counterpart:
Message 1: “Option A will earn you more money than option B.”
Message 2: “Option B will earn you more money than option A.”
If you send Message 1 to your counterpart, he/she will choose Option A. If you send Message 2 to your counterpart, he/she will choose Option B. We will calculate your payoffs in each trial according to the choice made by your counterpart.
Note that the specific monetary payoffs of X, Y, M and N in each trial are different. Before each trial, you will know the specific monetary payoffs of the X, Y, M and N and the monetary payments associated with each option. Then you send one of two messages to your counterpart.
After each trial, no payoff will be announced. Until all the decisions are over, all your payoffs in 12trials will be announced. We randomly choose one of the 12 trials to determine your real payoff. So please take every decision seriously!