| Summary: | Myrseth and
Wollbrant (2015) offer an alternative theoretical explanation for our finding
that defection entails more cognitive conflict than cooperation (Kieslich and
Hilbig, 2014). Although we completely agree that different theoretical
explanations for a result are possible, we maintain that the theoretical
approach we tested (Rand et al., 2014) is parsimonious and falsifiable,
excluding certain plausible results a priori. By comparison, the alternative
framework proposed by Myrseth and Wollbrant requires several debatable
assumptions to account for our findings, rendering it the more complex theory.
Besides, their framework as a whole could have accounted for any possible
finding in our experiment, making it impossible to falsify it with our data. We
thus conclude that the notion by Rand et al.---that there is a spontaneous
disposition to cooperate---has more empirical content while requiring fewer
assumptions.
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