主讲人Speaker: Gergely Horvath     副教授     昆山杜克大学

时间Date & Time: 2025年11月21日（周五），14:00--15:30

地点Venue:粤海校区汇星楼565会议室

内容简介/ Abstract:

Reputation is a fundamental mechanism that fosters cooperation in both theoretical models and real-world scenarios. However, unlike in typical theories and most experimental setups, real-life reputation systems are imperfect due to the potential for noisy or manipulated information. In this study, we experimentally examine how cooperation fares when individuals can strategically manipulate their public image and whether the possibility to verify the accuracy of public information can counteract such manipulation and restore cooperation. As a control situation, we employ a standard repeated experimental protocol that combines reputation and network reciprocity, allowing people to observe others' past behavior and decide jointly with whom to interact and whether to cooperate or defect against all their interaction partners. In line with previous evidence, the level of cooperation is high and stable in this framework. In our first treatment, people can \textit{manipulate} public information about their last action at a cost. Manipulation is frequent and virtually always employed by defectors. Cooperation rates decline rapidly in this framework. In our second treatment, where subjects can both manipulate their public reputation but also verify others' reputations at a cost, cooperation also converges toward near-zero levels, showing that verification alone does not restore cooperation. Given the key role of reputation in theory and practice and the widespread evidence of image manipulation in real-life scenarios, these findings call for further investigation of the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the vital yet complex role of reputation systems in human societies.

主讲人介绍/Biography of the speaker：

Gergely Horvath, is an associate professor of economics at Duke Kunshan University. His research focuses on experimental and behavioral economics, social network analysis, labor economics, applied microeconomics, and agent-based modelling. He has done research on diverse topics including the impact of social networks on job finding and labor market outcomes, the competition for social status in networks, discrimination in the labor market, entrepreneurship among ethnic minorities, whistleblowing in organizations, bank runs, and the evolution of cooperation. His articles have appeared in academic journals including the European Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Economics Letters, Journal of Theoretical Biology, and PLOS ONE. His research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Horváth has a B.A. in economics from Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Alicante, Spain. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he held faculty positions in China, and had research visits at the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute, the National Bank of Hungary, and Massey University.