Does Ethics Training Neutralize the Incentives of the Prisoner's Dilemma?
Evidence from a Classroom Experiment
Harvey S. James, Jr & Jeffrey P. Cohen
Abstract: Teaching economics has been shown to encourage students to defect in a prisoner's dilemma
game. However, can ethics training reverse that effect and promote cooperation? We conducted an
experiment to answer this question. We found that students who had the ethics module had higher rates of
cooperation than students without the ethics module, even after controlling for communication and other
factors expected to affect cooperation. We conclude that the teaching of ethics can mitigate the possible
adverse incentives of the prisoner's dilemma, and, by implication, the adverse effects of economics and
business training.