Welcome to the Social Deduction Game!

This is a scientific study being carried out by the UK Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology.

This study will last approximately 20 minutes and offers up to £10 in payment and £5 in bonuses. It involves the following tasks and approximate time required:

• Consent (2 min)
• Pre-Survey (5-10 min)
• Game Instructions (5 min)
• Matchmaking (5 min)
• Chat with another participant (10 minutes)
• Post-study Questionnaire (8 questions, 2 minutes)

Do you want to participate?

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Warning

Before we begin, here are a few important details:

1. Do not refresh the page or use the back button. This will cause the study to end prematurely.
2. If you end the study prematurely, you will generally be able to resume where you left off, though you may have to restart a survey if that is where you left off.
3. However, you will not be paid or be able to resume the study if you end the study during the chat task.
4. If your chat partner ends the study prematurely, you will be compensated for your time.
5. If you experience errors or need support, use the Prolific help system to reach out to the research team.

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Research Information & Consent

Welcome and thank you for your interest in our study!

The aim of this research study is to help us understand how people communicate, work together, and make strategic choices in team settings.

This is a study with a single session and is expected to take between 20 - 30 minutes.

In this study, you will participate in a Social Deduction Game (inspired by games like Mafia or Werewolf), an interactive activity designed to explore team dynamics, communication strategies, and decision-making processes.

During the game, you will engage in a one-on-one conversation with another player to infer the other player's gender. It is very important for the study that you honestly report your gender to us at the beginning of the study.

Based on the interaction, you will try to infer the gender of the other player and make a guess, which can earn you a bonus of up to 4 GBP on top of the reimbursement for your time at an hourly rate of 12 GBP.

If you decide to leave the study early or if the study ends early due to a technical error, you will receive a partial reimbursement for the time you have spent in the experiment so far (but no performance dependent bonus).

There will be attention checks in the study to ascertain data quality. If you do not pass the attention checks, we will terminate the study, you will be excluded and will not receive any reimbursement.

We appreciate your interest in participating in this online task. You have been invited to participate as you are over 18 years of age and a current resident of the UK.

Before agreeing to participate (if you wish to) by ticking the 'yes' box below.

You may ask any questions before deciding to take part by contacting the researcher (details below). The Principal Researcher is Lennart Luettgau who is a member of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

If you are happy to take part in the study, you will be asked to participate in a social deduction game and fill out questionnaires about yourself. The session should take no longer than 30 minutes, although if you take long breaks during the study, it may take longer. You will be reimbursed for your participation at a rate of approximately £12 / hour.

Do I have to take part?

No. Please note that participation is voluntary. If you do decide to take part, you may withdraw at any point for any reason by closing the browser.

How will my data be used?

During the study, we will ask you questions about yourself (such as your approximate age, gender identity, ethnicity and part of your postcode). This data will be stored on our secure servers and password-protected computers whilst the data is being analysed. We do not collect your name or full address, so whilst the data is being analysed, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to identify you. We will take all reasonable measures to ensure that data remain confidential.

The data that we collect may be used in publications or reports for internal or external organisations. In any such publication, data will be aggregated in such a way that no individual can be identified. Research data will be stored for three years after publication or public release of the work of the research. All data collected during the study will be handled according to GDPR regulations to ensure your privacy and security.

Who will have access to my data?

We would also like your permission to use fully anonymised data for further research, including using it to train AI systems, or to share it with other researchers. Data may be made publicly available at the point of publication to comply with journal policies but, if so, it will be aggregated in such a way that you cannot be identified.

Safety and Ethics

This study is carefully designed to eliminate any genuine risks of harm. We are not collecting any personal or sensitive information. If at any point you feel uncomfortable, you are free to withdraw from the study without any consequences.

While we take measures to protect your data, to further ensure your safety and privacy, please do not share any sensitive personal information during conversations. This includes your full name, address, phone number, email, medical diagnoses, credit card information, or any other unique identifiers. All interactions are designed to be anonymous, with team affiliations based solely on predefined demographics.

Who has reviewed this research?

This research has been reviewed by senior civil servants in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Who do I contact if I have a concern or I wish to complain?

If you have a concern about any aspect of this research, please speak to Dr Lennart Luettgau on researchteam@dsit.gov.uk and we will do our best to answer your query. We will acknowledge your concern within 10 working days and give you an indication of how it will be dealt with. If you remain unhappy or wish to make a formal complaint, please contact Lennart Luettgau on the email address above.

Please note that you may only participate in this survey if you are 18 years of age or over.

I certify that I am 18 years of age or over.

If you have read the information above and agree to participate with the understanding that the data you submit will be processed accordingly, please tick the box below to start.

I understand that when participating in this study, I will be asked questions about myself and will be asked to play a social deduction game. I understand that fully anonymised data may be made available to other researchers or used for other research purposes. If I have questions or complaints about this research, I know how to contact the researchers. I agree to take part in this research.

In order to proceed, we require you to check the below box, to signal that you agree not to use any digital tools, resources, or assistance outside of those explicitly provided within this study environment. This includes refraining from using any software, applications, websites, or online platforms that are not directly accessible or linked within this browser window.

I agree not to use external digital tools (e.g. internet or AI chatbots), resources, or assistance during this study.

Welcome to the Social Deduction Game!

Thank you for participating in our study!

In a moment, you will be sent to a virtual waiting room and matched with another participant. You may have to wait for up to five minutes before being matched. If no matches are found, you may end the study and collect £4. However, you may opt to wait again and participate. Once you are matched, you and your partner will be sent to the Deception Game to participate together. Do not refresh your browser or use the back button as it will stop the study. If you do, you will have to restart (however, your data has been saved and you will return to the place you left off).

Gameplay Mechanics

During the game, you will chat with one other player.

The chat will last approximately 10 minutes. After that, there will be a short debrief and questionnaire lasting roughly 5 minutes.

Conversations are unstructured, meaning you can discuss any topic you choose and use any kind of conversation techniques you might find helpful.

It is important that you do not use a chatbot/LLM or use information retrieved from internet search to write your responses, as this would invalidate the results of the study.

Before the beginning of the conversation, you will be assigned one of two roles (Target or Detective) you need to play, and if you are the Target, one of two modes that you need to operate on during the game. Your role and mode will be visible to you (but not to the player you are chatting to) next to the chat window during the entire conversation.

1) Target [Honest or Deceptive]: The other player (Detective) wants to guess your gender and aims at extracting information from you. You are additionally asked to operate in one of two modes:

• Honest: If you are assigned this mode, you need to honestly state your gender at the start of the conversation and be honest about your gender throughout the conversation.
• Deceptive: If you are assigned this mode, you will be required to lie about your gender at the start of the conversation, claiming to be the opposite gender. During the conversation, you are free to do whatever you think is most likely to deceive the other player into believing your falsely claimed gender.

2) Detective: You try to extract gender information from the other player. You don't know the Target's gender and whether they are playing in Honest or Deceptive mode. Your responsibility is to find out whether your Target is Honest or Deceptive and try to find out their gender based on the conversation.

As a Detective, after the conversation you will guess the gender of your conversation partner [female or male].

As Target, we do not ask you to guess the other player's gender.

Game Outcomes

Collaborative Scenario (Target is Honest):

• If the Detective correctly identifies the Target's gender, both players earn a bonus of £4.
• If the Detective incorrectly guesses the Target's gender, both players get no bonus.

Adversarial Scenario (Target is Deceptive):

• If the Detective correctly identifies the Target's gender, the Detective earns a bonus of £4, and the Target gets no bonus.
• If the Detective guesses incorrectly, the Target earns a bonus of £4, and the Detective gets no bonus.

Understanding Your Role:

Be aware of your assigned role (Target: Honest or Deceptive or Detective) during each interaction and strictly adhere to it. If you are assigned the role of a Deceptive Target, ensure that you adhere strictly to the requirement of falsely claiming your gender at the start of the conversation.

Behavioral Conduct:

You are free to use a range of tactics, ranging from being polite and friendly through to applying pressure and directly challenging your conversation partner. However, please use appropriate language throughout the interaction. Remember that this is just a game, and no one should leave the study feeling worse than when they arrived.

Final Reminders:

Engage fully with each conversation to help us gather meaningful data. Maintain your assigned role and mode of operation. Remember that both honest and deceptive behaviors are part of the study's design to assess team dynamics comprehensively. After the study, you will have the opportunity to provide feedback on your experience, which we greatly appreciate.

Thank you for your time and valuable contribution to our research!

You and your partner are being taken to a chat room now

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Your partner dropped. Press continue to complete the study for payment.

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Debriefing

Thank you for participating in our study!

In this study, we wanted to investigate how people communicate across different contexts, in which they have to find out if it is more beneficial to work together or compete with each other and which strategic choices humans make in these scenarios.

The one-on-one conversation with the other player was framed around a scenario in which you had to either infer the other player's gender or be questioned about your gender by the other player.

Our hypothesis is that Detectives in general will be able to infer the Target's gender better than guessing randomly, but that they perform better if the target is honest and gives veridical feedback.

This research has important implications for understanding trust and deception in the context of collaboration and will inform future studies in the space of human-AI interactions.

While in the interest of balancing the experimental design we needed to artificially constrain the gender variable to be binary, we by no means want to imply that gender is binary in real-world settings.

We thank you again for taking part in this study.

If you have further questions or inquiries regarding the study, please contact the Principal Researcher Dr. Lennart Luettgau on researchteam@dsit.gov.uk.

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