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Article History

Received: 9 December 2025

Accepted: 30 March 2026

First Online: 13 April 2026

Declarations

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: All experimental procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University Paul Sabatier (Comité d’éthique de l’Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier) and conducted in full compliance with institutional and European regulations for human-subject research. Participants provided written informed consent before taking part. They were informed that the study investigated decision-making and cooperation in digital environments, but in some sessions they were not told that the other four co-players were algorithmic agents. This partial concealment was necessary to avoid biasing behavior and to reproduce realistic online situations in which human users often interact unknowingly with automated bots.After completion of the experiment, all participants were fully debriefed. They were informed about the true nature of their co-players, the purpose of the study, and the use of their anonymized data. They were also offered the possibility to withdraw their data; none chose to do so.All data were anonymized at the time of collection. Each participant was assigned a random identification number, and no correspondence between identifiers and personal information was ever created. The only recorded variables were age range, gender, and in-game decisions. Anonymized datasets are stored on encrypted, password-protected servers at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de Toulouse and will be retained for fifteen years. Because of complete anonymization, subsequent data deletion is technically impossible, but participants could withdraw at any time during the experiment.These procedures ensure that the study meets the ethical requirements for the justified use of deception, post-experimental debriefing, and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679).

: All authors have reviewed and approved the manuscript for publication.

: The authors declare no competing interests.