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The emergence of language differences in artificial codes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Fuhai Hong  and
Xiaojian Zhao
Fuhai Hong*
Affiliation:
Division of Economics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
Xiaojian Zhao*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong
*
fhhong@ntu.edu.sg
xjzhao81@gmail.com
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Abstract

The paper studies how common codes of artificial language in communication are developed in the laboratory. We find that codes emerging from an environment with more variable spatial positions tend to use a limited set of symbols to represent positions, whereas codes emerging from an environment with more variable geometric shapes tend to discriminate among shapes. The paper also experimentally shows that “language” affects the way its “speakers” share the view about a novel figure.

Keywords

Communication gamesCoordinationEconomics of language

JEL classification

Z1: Cultural Economics • Economic Sociology • Economic Anthropology C92: Laboratory, Group Behavior C72: Noncooperative Games

Information

Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 924 - 945
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-017-9518-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

An erratum to this article is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-017-9534-3.

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