One hundred twenty student subjects from the United States and Turkey participated in a prisoner's dilemma type game where subjects were given a chance to communicate with their adversary either directly or through an intermediary. Turkish subjects were found to significantly prefer the intermediary, whereas United States subjects chose direct communication. An interaction effect with gender was also found: Reliance on intermediaries was particularly high for female Turkish subjects. Contrary to expectations, the preference for mediation in Turkey did not increase when, under one experimental condition, the subject's gains from cooperation was higher than that of the other player. These findings are interpreted in terms of differences in individualism-collectivism between the two cultures.
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