Inference and communication in the game of Password

Abstract

Communication between a speaker and hearer will be most efficient when both parties make accurate inferences about the other. We study inference and communication in a television game called Password, where speakers must convey secret words to hearers by providing one-word clues. Our working hypothesis is that human communication is relatively efficient, and we use game show data to examine three predictions. First, we predict that speakers and hearers are both considerate, and that both take the other's perspective into account. Second, we predict that speakers and hearers are calibrated, and that both make accurate assumptions about the strategy used by the other. Finally, we predict that ..