Behavioral Experiments on Decision Horizons in Conflict Analysis Theory Education

Summary

This study employs two types of experiments: the sustainable development game and the price war game, to help participants understand the basic concepts of conflict analysis theory, analyze their decision-making horizons, and overcome the difficulties associated with abstract concepts and comprehension in traditional teaching, thereby achieving optimal decision-making.

Abstract

This study employs behavioral experiments to develop effective teaching methods for stability theory within the graph model for conflict resolution. The approach enhances participants' understanding of interactive processes in conflict games, strengthens their cognitive capacity for multi-step decision horizons, and improves learning outcomes. A behavioral experiment was designed in which the four basic stabilities of the graph model for conflict resolution (GMCR) were incorporated into experimental teaching. Using two classic cases of conflict games as examples, an interactive behavioral decision-making simulation environment was constructed. In this virtual setting, participants simulated conflict-related strategic decision-making processes to better understand the theoretical meanings of the four basic stability behaviors, decision horizons, and rational decision-making in conflict games. The experiment was divided into two parts. The first part of the experiment required participants to assume the roles of government and enterprise, respectively, and engage in multiple rounds of gameplay, focusing on strengthening their understanding of the four basic stability concepts and the notion of decision horizons, and analyzing the evolutionary patterns of decision horizons with increasing rounds. The second part required participants to simulate a price war game between enterprises, emphasizing the enhancement of their cognitive understanding of rational and irrational decision-making behaviors in conflict games. The experimental results demonstrated that participants' decision horizons were broadened through decision-making behavior simulations, enabling them to handle complex conflict situations more rationally. The behavioral experiment designed in this study provides an innovative pedagogy for teaching conflict analysis and thus holds significant educational implications and practical value.

Introduction

In conflict analysis and decision-making education, decision foresight measures how far ahead -- how many moves and counter-moves -- a decision-maker can look when judging whether the current state is stable¹. A state is stable for a given decision-maker if every unilateral improvement he might attempt can be blocked by credible countermoves of the other decision-makers that leave him in a less preferred position, so that he prefers to remain at the status quo. A state is a situation formed by the strategy choices of every decision-maker. Once each participant in the conflict has settled on a strategy, a possible state comes into being.

Protocol

This study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. We obtained the informed consent of the participants to use and release their data.This behavioral experiment was no risks are present throughout the entire process.

1. Experiment 1: Sustainable development game experiment between government and enterprises

1. Preparation
   1. Select a set of opaque colored card papers with the same texture in red and blue. Prepare two blue cards and three red cards; cut them into cards o....

Results

Experiment 1: Sustainable development game experiment between government and enterprises
The representative results of this experiment mainly include data on changes in decision-making horizons and game equilibrium results. This study included ten experimental groups, each with varying numbers of rounds. To standardize the statistical analysis of the experimental results, the longest number of rounds (22 rounds) from the experimental groups was used as the statistical benchmark. For experimental grou.......

Discussion

This protocol can be readily implemented in both classroom and research settings, providing a readily applicable experimental teaching tool for conflict analysis and decision-making courses in business schools and management institutes.

Critical steps in the protocol:
To ensure the reliability of the results, the following steps need to be considered: First, participants who are familiar with the decision-making theories in the experiment are excluded, as these participa.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Black gel pen	Deli	DP200 (0.5 mm)	This is used to record the experimental results.
Bluetooth headphones	Huawei	T0016	This is used to play music and block out external sounds.
Cards	Deli	red and blue (15 cm × 10 cm)	This is the material used for creating the experimental tasks.
H-frame double-sided whiteboard	Deli	33374	This is used to display the experimental content as well as the experimental results.
Laptop	Lenovo	PF1CHHRC	This is used to connect Bluetooth headphones.
Whiteboard marker	Deli	SK108 (red, blue, black)	It is used to mark experimental results and payoffs on the whiteboard.