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Article History

Received: 14 October 2023

Accepted: 22 April 2024

First Online: 24 May 2024

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interest.

: The research complies with all relevant ethical regulations. The study was approved by the UCL Ethics Board (Project ID: ICN-NH-PWB-7-1-23A). Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Although ‘Player 3’/‘The Sender’ (Player A) and ‘The Receiver’ (Player B) really did exist and participants’ decisions really did influence their own payoff and that of fellow participants, ‘Player 1’ (the cheated in punishing contexts or the recipient in helping contexts) and ‘Player 2’ (the violator) did not actually exist. Therefore, participants were fully debriefed after the study, and only those who previously indicated they were willing to take part in studies involving deception were invited to the study. Participants were compensated at an hourly rate of £9.