Prediction of Game Behavior Based on Culture Factors

Elnaz Nouri, David TraumInstitute for Creative Technologies, USCA Cross-cultural Study of Playing Simple Economic Games Online with Humans and Virtual HumansHCII 2013 - 25th JulyLas Vegas 1AbstractWe ran simple online economic interactions between virtual human and people from two countries (India and US).

We compare our results to:Previously reported findings of similar interactions run in the laboratory.

Virtual human

Virtual human= multimodal communication agent (Our own findings of similar interactions between humans

2We are interested inOnline interactionsInteraction with agents

Reliability of self-reported demographics on Mechanical Turk showed to be above 97%economic games run on Mechanical Turk are comparable to those run in laboratory setting even when with low stakes for payment.

Agents (Virtual humans) can act as social cues in the interaction. Previous studies on effect of agents facial expressions in prisoners dilemma ()

We are interested in

Virtual humanVirtual human- Human interactionOnline Low Stake GamesCultural Differences

Economic Decisions

Questions Do we observe deviating from self-interested behavior from participants when playing with virtual humans?Does the online version of games replicated findings from previous in lab and on field studies?Can the values held by participants account for these differences?Are there cultural differences between participants from different countries?What causes these differences in behavior?What impact does the type of game have on players decisions and values? How different are players from the United States from Players in India? What impact does the type of game have on players decisions and values? How similar or different do participants feel and act when playing a virtual human versus another person?5Questions we try to answerOpponents effect: How similar or different do participants feel and act when playing a virtual human versus another person?

Cultures effect: How different are players from the United States from Players in India?

Games effect: What impact does the type of game have on players decisions and values?

How different are players from the United States from Players in India? What impact does the type of game have on players decisions and values? How similar or different do participants feel and act when playing a virtual human versus another person?6In this talkPrevious work:Cultural differences in decision-making games and valuesMARV model and MARV surveySocial aspects of human-agent interactionOn-line AMT Study and experiment detailsUS and Indian participants Human vs. Virtual HumansDictator or Ultimatum game ResultsCross-cultural differences in game play and personal valuesGame effectOpponent effectConclusion7Previous WorkIn-person games have been for understanding people's economic decision making behavior. (Camerer, 2003)

Ultimatum game(Guth, 1983), Dictator game(Bolton, 1998), Prisoners Dilemma (Rapoport, 1965)

An example: Ultimatum GameExpected Results:

Two players can split a certain amount of money (Gth, 1982). Two turn game:

Proposer: make an offerResponder: accept or reject the offer Offer the minimum amount possibleAccept any offer greater than zerotake off the state diagram

9Cultural Variations in Ultimatum Game

Observations:

Proposers offer about 40 50$ on average.Responders reject offers of 20$ or less. (Camerer, 2003)(Roth, 1993)Considerable variation of offers and acceptance rates across 4 cultures (Roth 1993; Camerer 2003)How can we explain these?Gth, W., Schmittberger, and Schwarze (1982). "An Experimental Analysis of Ultimatum Bargaining". Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization: 367388. Comparison made between different cultures (Roth, 1993)

10MARV = Multi-Attribute Relational ValuesGoal: Internal computational model of decision making for agents that is sensitive to culture, and produces behavior consistent with observations of that cultureApproach: applying multi-attribute decision-making model to calculate utility of decisionsassigning appropriate weights to each of the following attributes:

MARV Model (Nouri, 2011)

agents own gaingain of anotherrelative gain of the playersthe total gainMethods for setting up the weightsPrevious Methods for determining culture-specific weights on attributes:Intuitions based on Hofstedes dimensional model of culture (Nouri & Traum CMVC 2011)Machine learning from human behavior data (Nouri et al CogSci 2012)New method Directly ask participants how much they care about the weights (Nouri and Traum GDN 2013) by assigning weights from -5 to 5. (-5 means they dont care about that value whereas 5 shows they care significantly about the value.)

Example values reported by group A and BHofstede dimensions of cultural values

PDI: Power Distance (large vs. small), IDV: Individualism vs. Collectivism, MAS: Masculinity vs. Femininity, UAI: Uncertainty Avoidance (strong vs. weak),LTO: Long- vs. Short-Term Orientation, IVR: Indulgence vs. Restraint, and MON: Monumentalism vs. Self-Effacement.VS08 Hofestede Survey Questions:have sufficient time for your personal or home life (IDV)Q2 have a boss (direct superior) you can respect (PDI)get recognition for good performance (MAS)have security of employment (IDV)have pleasant people to work with (MAS)do work that is interesting (IDV)be consulted by your boss in decisions involving your work (PDI)live in a desirable area (MAS)have a job respected by your family and friends (IDV)have chances for promotion (MAS)keeping time free for fun (IVR)moderation: having few desires (IVR)being generous to other people (MON)modesty: looking small, not big (MON)If there is something expensive you really want to buy but you do not have enough money, what do you do? (LTO)How often do you feel nervous or tense?(UAI)Are you a happy person? (IVR)Are you the same person at work (or at school if youre a student) and at home? (LTO)

Hofstede Culture Model: dimensions of cultural valuesPDI: Power Distance (large vs. small), IDV: Individualism vs. Collectivism, MAS: Masculinity vs. Femininity, UAI: Uncertainty Avoidance (strong vs. weak), LTO: Long- vs. Short-Term Orientation, IVR: Indulgence vs. Restraint, and MON: Monumentalism vs. Self-Effacement.

VS08 Hofestede Survey Questionshave sufficient time for your personal or home life (IDV)Q2 have a boss (direct superior) you can respect (PDI)get recognition for good performance (MAS)have security of employment (IDV)have pleasant people to work with (MAS)do work that is interesting (IDV)be consulted by your boss in decisions involving your work (PDI)live in a desirable area (MAS)have a job respected by your family and friends (IDV)have chances for promotion (MAS)keeping time free for fun (IVR)moderation: having few desires (IVR)being generous to other people (MON)modesty: looking small, not big (MON)If there is something expensive you really want to buy but you do not have enough money, what do you do? (LTO)How often do you feel nervous or tense?(UAI)Are you a happy person? (IVR)

Are you the same person at work (or at school if youre a student) and at home? (LTO)Do other people or circumstances ever prevent you from doing what you really want to (IVR)how would you describe your state of health these days? (UAI)How important is religion in your life?(MON)How proud are you to be a citizen of your country? (MON)How often, in your experience, are subordinates afraid to contradict their boss (or students their teacher?) (PDI)One can be a good manager without having a precise answer to every question that a subordinate may raise about his or her work (UAI)Persistent efforts are the surest way to results (LTO)An organization structure in which certain subordinates have two bosses should be avoided at all cost (PDI)A company's or organization's rules should not be broken - not even when the employee thinks breaking the rule would be in the organization's best interest (UAI)To what extent We should honor our heroes from the past (LTO)

MARV SurveyAbbreviationValue DescriptionVselfGetting a lot of pointsVotherThe other player getting a lot of pointsVcompeteGetting more points than the other playerVfairnesshaving the same number of points as the other playerVjointMaking sure that if we add our points together we got as many points as possibleVrawlsThe player with fewest points (whoever that is) gets as many as possibleVlower boundMaking sure to get some points (even if not as many as possible)VchanceThe chance to get a lot of points (even if there's also a chance not to get any points)Rating scale: from -5 (no importance at all) to 5 (significantly imporant)15Experiment Set UpPlayed online version Ultimatum Game or Dictator Game over 100 points

The Ultimatum Game. as described.The Dictator Game. played exactly like the standard Ultimatum Game, except that the responder is not given an opportunity to accept or reject the offer.

Paid based on their performance in the game:$0.5 show up fee Could earn another $0.05 for each additional 10 points that they accumulated in the game.

Snapshot of the SimCoach characterhttp://labs.simcoach.org/simcoach/?space=mini&character=3072

Experiment ProcedureBefore Game:Fill out the VS08 Hofstede Survey and demographic information questionsReceive instructions about the game (Dictator Game or Ultimatum Game) denoting they would be playing with another participant from their country.The Game:Play the proposer in Dictator Game or Ultimatum gameFill out the MARV Decision-making values survey (in the case of the ultimatum game) Receive their partners move and their final reward. In reality, there was no partner and the ultimatum game responses were chosen according to a fixed protocol.

18Study ParticipantsIndian and US participants recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Number of players from IndiaDictator GameUltimatum GameHuman107101Virtual Human3847Number of players from USDictator GameUltimatum GameHuman107101Virtual Human4653ResultsResults: Game EffectOffer DistributionOffers: The offers made in the two games are significantly different from one another.

Average Offer in Dictator GameAverage Offer in Ultimatum Game

39.647.6Values:are significantly different between the two games:{Vother , Vcompete, Vequal , Vjoint, Vrawls, Vlower bound}Results: Cultures EffectIndiaOffers:Significant difference between the two cultures when playing ultimatum game with Virtual humans (p value