AN EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF SCHELLING'S TACIT COMMUNICATION HYPOTHESIS.

The article focuses on the experimental verification of Schelling's "Tacit Communication," which is communication occurring via the common understandings of the two parties rather than by means of explicit messages sent through identifiable channels. Tacit communication depends on the saliency of certain cultural or situational features in a conflict or, for that matter, in any setting where explicit messages are not feasible. Bargains frequently can be struck without overt communication, simply by the tacit observation by both panics of some situational element that stands out in such a way that its mutual observation becomes likely. The author asserts that such communication must occur to coordinate behavior whenever other messages are incomplete, or non-existent.