Searching for the external validity of social preference games: A guide of field environments based on expert perceptions

Abstract

The last couple of decades have witnessed a lively debate on the external validity of social preference games. Yet, scientific progress in this area has been restrained by the difficulty of delineating the field environments that social preference games should generalize to. Here we present three studies investigating the field environments and behaviors to which social preference games are expected to relate, according to specialist researchers. In Study 1, we systematically reviewed all the papers published in the top 5 economics journals that used social preference games, and we analyzed the field settings explicitly linked to the games by the authors. In Study 2, we used large language models to expand our analysis of the literature beyond the top 5. In Study 3, we conducted a survey among members of the Economic Science Association (ESA) mailing list to investigate the field environments they viewed as most closely associated with different social preference games. Overall, our results provide a rich guide to the types of field settings that are expected to relate to social preference games, according to the people who use them. This guide constitutes a useful reference to organize future research on external validity and make it more systematic.