Do hormones impact behavior in the minimum effort game?

An experimental investigation of human behavior during the weakest link game after the administration of vasopressin

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental study involving the minimum effort game. In this game, each player faces a trade-off between risk and payoff. Within each group, half of the subjects were administered with vasopressin in nasal spray form while half received a placebo. We found that subjects who received vasopressin were more likely to play the minimally risky strategy in the group and less likely to focus on payoff levels than those who received the placebo.