This paper presents a novel mechanism through which culture can affect behavior. Cultural diversity matters because it influences the degree of strategic uncertainty that players face. We model this by building on research in psychology on perspective taking. The model delivers comparative statics that are broadly consistent with experimental evidence and that are difficult to obtain with existing methods. In addition, it can account for a variety of disparate evidence, including why inefficient social customs persist in some societies but not in others and why exclusively targeting incentives may not help with resolving collective action problems. ∗A version of this paper has been circulated under the title “Challenging Conformity: A Case for Diversity.” Part of the material incorporated here was previously in a paper entitled “A belief-based theory of homophily” by the same authors (Kets and Sandroni, 2015). We are grateful to the Associate Editor and three anonymous referees for excellent suggestions. We thank Larbi Alaoui, Vincent Crawford, Yan Chen, Vessela Daskalova, Wouter Dessein, Matthew Jackson, Wouter Kager, Rachel Kranton, Bart Lipman, George Mailath, Niko Matouschek, Rosemarie Nagel, Santiago Oliveros, Scott Page, Antonio Penta, Nicola Persico, Debraj Ray, Nick Robalino, Yuval Salant, Larry Samuelson, Paul Seabright, Rajiv Sethi, Eran Shmaya, Andy Skrzypacz, Jakub Steiner, Colin Stewart, Jeroen Swinkels, Tymon Tatur, Yiqing Xing, and numerous seminar audiences and conference participants for helpful comments and stimulating discussions. †Department of Economics, University of Oxford. E-mail: willemien.kets@economics.ox.ac.uk. ‡Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. E-mail: sandroni@kellogg.northwestern.edu

中文翻译：

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战略不确定性和文化多样性理论

本文提出了一种文化影响行为的新机制。文化多样性很重要，因为它会影响参与者面临的战略不确定性程度。我们通过建立在观点采择方面的心理学研究来对此进行建模。该模型提供了与实验证据大体一致并且难以用现有方法获得的比较静力学。此外，它可以解释各种不同的证据，包括为什么低效的社会习俗在某些社会中持续存在，而在其他社会中却没有，以及为什么专门针对激励措施可能无助于解决集体行动问题。∗本文的一个版本已以“挑战合规性：多样性的案例”为题分发。” 此处纳入的部分材料之前曾出现在同一作者的题为“基于信念的同质性理论”的论文中（Kets 和 Sandroni，2015 年）。我们感谢副主编和三位匿名审稿人的出色建议。我们感谢 Larbi Alaoui、Vincent Crawford、Yan Chen、Vessela Daskalova、Wouter Dessein、Matthew Jackson、Wouter Kager、Rachel Kranton、Bart Lipman、George Mailath、Niko Matouschek、Rosemarie Nagel、Santiago Oliveros、Scott Page、Antonio Penta、Nicola Persico、 Debraj Ray、Nick Robalino、Yuval Salant、Larry Samuelson、Paul Seabright、Rajiv Sethi、Eran Shmaya、Andy Skrzypacz、Jakub Steiner、Colin Stewart、Jeroen Swinkels、Tymon Tatur、Yiqing Xing 以及众多研讨会观众和会议参与者的有益评论和激发讨论。†牛津大学经济系。电子邮件：willemien.kets@economics.ox.ac.uk。‡西北大学凯洛格管理学院。电子邮箱：sandroni@kellogg.northwestern.edu