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Can the Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma Game Be Used As a Tool to Enhance Moral Reasoning?

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Teaching Business Ethics

Abstract

The Treadway Commission examined the causes offraudulent financial reporting and maderecommendations to curb its occurrence. In itsrecommendations to educators, the TreadwayCommission (1987) stated that ``(b)usinessschools should encourage business andaccounting faculty to develop their ownpersonal competence as well as classroommaterials for conveying information, skills,and ethical values that can help prevent,detect, and deter fraudulent financialreporting'' (p. 83). The purpose of this studywas to determine whether the repeatedprisoner's dilemma game could be used as a toolto increase individuals' moral reasoning. Itwas hoped that this exercise would encouragetrust (Rapoport and Chammah, 1965) andreciprocal altruism (Dawes, 1988) as theylearned to cooperate with one another in orderto maximize their payoffs.

Students enrolled in a financial accountingcourse participated in a five-round repeatedprisoner's dilemma game. Payoffs were bonuspoints to be added to their final exam grade. Students' level of moral reasoning was assessedthree times based on their evaluation of two,short ethical dilemmas – prior toparticipating in the repeated prisoner'sdilemma game, then approximately one week afterthe exercise, and finally three months afterthe exercise. Although we found that students'level of moral reasoning did not significantlyincrease one week after participating in therepeated prisoner's dilemma game, there was aneffect three months later for one of the twoethical dilemmas. Possible explanations forthese results are discussed as well asimplications for future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palumbo School of Business, Duquesne University, 802 Rockwell Hall, Pittsburgh, PA, 15282-0104, USA

    Stephen E. Rau & James Weber

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  1. Stephen E. Rau
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  2. James Weber
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Rau, S.E., Weber, J. Can the Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma Game Be Used As a Tool to Enhance Moral Reasoning?. Teaching Business Ethics 7, 395–416 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:TEBE.0000005708.69231.4f

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:TEBE.0000005708.69231.4f

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