Bargaining and dilemma games have developed in experimental economics as fairly separate literatures. More than a few analysts are now persuaded that the patterns of behavior in these games are closely related, and considerable effort is being put into a search for models that bridge the gap between the two types of games. I focus on a handful of models that, when taken together, outline the conceptual issues, and provide a sense of the progress that has already been made.

We report four repetitions of Falk and Kosfeld's (Am. Econ. Rev. 96(5):1611—1630, 2006) low and medium control treatments with 476 subjects. Each repetition employs a sample drawn from a standard subject pool of students and demographics vary across samples. We largely confirm the existence of hidden costs of control but, contrary to the original study, hidden costs of control are usually not substantial enough to significantly undermine the effectiveness of economic incentives. Our subjects were asked, at the end of the experimental session, to complete a questionnaire in which they had to state their work motivation in hypothetical scenarios. Our questionnaires are identical to the ones administered in Falk and Kosfeld's (Am. Econ. Rev. 96(5):1611—1630, 2006) questionnaire study. In contrast to the game play data, our questionnaire data are similar to those of the original questionnaire study. In an attempt to solve this puzzle, we report an extension with 228 subjects where performance-contingent earnings are absent i.e. both principals and agents are paid according to a flat participation fee. We observe that hidden costs significantly outweigh benefits of control under hypothetical incentives.

Although volunteers are a critical resource for non-profit organizations, little is known about how best to motivate them to work. A non-profit organization asked episodic volunteers to produce handmade greeting cards to sell at a fundraising event. By running a natural field experiment, we study the effect of motivating these volunteers through (a) the opportunity to vote on how the money that was raised would be spent and (b) the prospect of individual performance feedback. We find an economically and statistically significant positive effect of both tools on the quantity of work done, while the quality is mostly unaffected. Moreover, we observe significant gender differences in responsiveness to the treatments. While the prospect for feedback is more motivating to men, women respond more strongly to the opportunity to decide how the money would be spent. Empowerment seems to be a simple way to increase engagement for people with low enjoyment.

This paper responds to Al-Hoorie, Hiver, and In’nami’s (2024) critique of the second language (L2) Motivational Self System (L2MSS) by advocating for an immediate cessation of its use in the absence of substantial revision and validation. We revisit foundational studies in the tradition, exposing critical methodological flaws that we feel undermine empirical support for the model. Further, we examine systemic factors that contributed to the largely uncritical acceptance of the model. Drawing on our own experiences, we reflect on how these dynamics have obstructed the adoption of more robust motivational theories available in psychology and education. We further caution that without a stronger emphasis on validating measurement instruments, similar distractions may continue to hinder progress in the field.

Marginal utility (MU) theories of consumer demand assume that consumers try to maximise a generic benefit (‘utility’) by selecting purchases giving equal MU per unit of cost, from which are predicted the observed relationships between price changes and quantities of demanded consumer goods. Attempts to remedy the explanatory shortcomings of MU theory usually supplement it with additional assumptions. This paper proposes taking that approach to its logical conclusion by using consumer and psychological research findings not to supplement but to replace the concept of utility entirely with realistic explanations of consumer behaviour.

While our earlier report focused on the initial four months of the dataset (Saito et al., 2018, Language Learning), this study investigates the relationship between individual differences in motivation (Ideal Self and Ought–to Self), emotions (Enjoyment and Anxiety), and L2 speech learning among 121 Japanese English–as–a–Foreign–Language high school students over 1.5–years. Participants’ L2 speech proficiency consistently improved at each testing point (6 months, 10 months, and 1.5 years), while their motivation and emotions, measured through questionnaires, remained relatively stable. The results of structural equation modeling suggest that the relationship between motivation, emotions, and acquisition may evolve. Within the first 6-10 months, data indicated a correlational relationship, highlighting a mutual influence among motivation, emotions, and acquisition. However, as the study progressed beyond one year, after students had fully adapted to their educational settings, a clearer causal relationship emerged: Enhanced motivation and more positive emotions were linked to increased classroom practice, leading to significant gains in L2 speech proficiency. The predictive roles of Anxiety remained unclear in this longitudinal dataset.

We used a survey to investigate the effects of personality, motives, and socioeconomics for drinking hard cider among 3,373 Norwegian respondents in 2023. Wine interest, cultural interest, having a high score on conspicuous attitude, or being female increased the predicted consumption frequencies of hard cider. Scoring high on the taste index, being a conscientious respondent, being older, higher educated, or believing religion is important reduced the predicted frequencies. The estimated effects were compared with the corresponding effects for red, white, and sparkling wines. Cultural interest and wine interest are the main motives for hard cider and all categories of wine.

Previous studies have reported fewer social biases in bilinguals compared to monolinguals. However, it is unclear whether the expression of social biases varies across the bilingualism spectrum. This article investigates the connections between different dimensions of bilingual experience and the expression of explicit bias. We analyzed the responses of 389 bilinguals to a battery of questionnaires on bilingual and multicultural experiences, explicit bias, internal and external motivation to respond without prejudice and executive control. The results show that more diverse language-use and language-learning experiences were associated with lower explicit bias among bilinguals who had lower internal motivation to respond without prejudice (i.e., motivation driven by personal values). This study presents novel evidence on the relationships between bilingual experiences and the expression of social biases.

We introduce a novel way to elicit individuals’ strength of altruistic motivation in the context of charitable donations, ranging from pure warm glow to pure altruism. Using the giving-type elicitation task of Gangadharan et al. (2018) and assuming that individuals maximise a Cobb–Douglas impure altruism utility function, as is used in Ottoni-Wilhelm et al. (2017), we can uniquely identify the strength of altruistic motivation for impure altruists, which is typically found to be the largest category of donors. We compare the introduced measure to an alternative survey-based elicitation from Carpenter (2021).

In this study, we approximately replicated Papi and Khajavy’s (2021) investigation into the regulatory focus in second language acquisition, applying their approach to a significantly larger cohort of 855 Chinese second language (L2) learners. In contrast with the original study, our research employed the College English Test Band 4 (CET-4), a standardized English test, to better align with the Chinese educational context. This methodological shift allowed for a nuanced exploration of the regulatory focus’s role in language learning among Chinese students. Our results predominantly reinforce the crucial role of regulatory focus in language learning, echoing Papi and Khajavy’s findings. We discovered notable parallels in how promotion positively influences ideal own and ideal other, and how prevention negatively impacts ought own and ought other. However, a unique finding of our study was the stronger impact of ought selves on L2 anxiety and enjoyment in the Chinese context. This highlights the nuanced influence of socioeducational environments on regulatory focus strategies, suggesting contextual variability in language learning strategies.