Today reading

Meanwhile, I was reading papers relating to experiments in strategic games, I found this footnote in (Charness and Gneezy 2008):

"Historically, in one of the first bargaining experiments reported in the economic literature, Siegel and Fouraker (1960) chose a procedure in which the two bargaining parties remain anonymous to each other throughout the experiment. They explained their choice (pp. 22–23) as follows:

This procedure eliminates certain variables...connected with interpersonal perceptions, prejudices, incompatibilities, etc.” However, ignoring these variables may lead to a lower degree of external validity for an experiment. Siegel and Fouraker continue: “It is our belief that such variables should either be systematically studied or controlled in experimentation on bargaining. It cannot be assumed, as has often been done, that such variables may simply be neglected. We have chosen to control these variables at this stage of our research program, with the intention of manipulating and studying them systematically in future studies.” Unfortunately, Siegel’s untimely death cut this research agenda short."

It is truly amazing to see how far the science has come...