Interpret the behavioral meaning of opponent response speed

Determine whether a fast opponent bid signals resolve, deliberation, tactical delay, or inattention in the dynamic all-pay auction, thereby explaining why opponent response speed affects continuation decisions.

Background

The experiment finds that participants told a human might be present respond differently to the opponent’s bidding speed, whereas participants given other descriptions do not show the same detectable responsiveness. However, the behavioral meaning of a rapid raise is not identified by the experimental results. It could reflect determination, deliberate waiting, tactical behavior, or inattentiveness, and the authors explicitly state that this interpretation remains unknown.

References

What a fast raise conveys is unsettled . It may signal resolve, or reflect deliberation, tactical delay, or inattention, which is unknown to the responding participant and to us.

— People escalate against a competitor labelled human and hold back against one labelled an optimising machine  (2609.21439 - Ferraz et al., 18 Sep 2026) in Section “The opponent's response speed affects behaviour”

We do not claim that AI-Optimal plays a game-theoretically optimal strategy; we are not aware of a characterised equilibrium for a repeated dynamic all-pay auction of this form, and the phrase shown to participants describes the training objective.

— People escalate against a competitor labelled human and hold back against one labelled an optimising machine  (2609.21439 - Ferraz et al., 18 Sep 2026) in Methods, subsection “AI agents”