Individually selecting among conventions - an evolutionary and experimental analysis

Conventions can be narrowly interpreted as coordinated ways of equilibrium play, telling all players which of possibly several equilibria to play or more broadly how to choose in a game without imposing the equilibrium property. Since coordination often takes place before learning about the game, one has to coordinate on a prescribing principle. For the subclass of 2×2-bimatrix games with two strict equilibria, we analyze the evolutionary stability of various such principles. In our experiment, we allow participants to coordinate on principles before playing various games. Based on between-subjects treatments, participants do so being completely (they know neither their role nor the game parameters), partially (they know either their role or the game parameters) ignorant, or with no veil of ignorance (they know their role and the game parameters).