(Vision paper) The effect of cognitive ability on sender behavior in dictator and ultimatum game experiments

As large-scale web-based experiments become increasingly feasible, concerns have arisen regarding the reproducibility and external validity of their results. Small-scale laboratory experiments, which allow for more precise control over various attributes of participants, can complement the findings of large-scale web-based experiments and contribute to rigorously examining human behavior without bias. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of cognitive ability in simple decision-making contexts such as the Dictator and the Ultimatum Game. We find that in some situations there is no difference in the behavior of the participants regardless of the difference in Raven’s score, in other situations the different score produces different behavior. These results suggest that we should control the cognitive ability of the participants according to the situations.