In the present study, two trivial games, one relevant to the trait of trust, the other to the trait of competition, were used to predict behavior in the mixed-motive game of Chicken. The results showed that behavior in the Chicken game was related to choice in the "competition" game but not in the "trust" game. Thus, findings suggested that competition is the dominant motive in the Chicken game, and they demonstrated the utility of using trivial games to determine the relative influence of the various motives that could be salient in mixed-motive situations.
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