stu this is such a great comparison! i participated in an econ study like the one you described, and the person in the other room (we couldn't see who the other person was) tried to offer me $2 for him to take $18 & i turned down his offer just to teach him a lesson about greed/empathy/fairness/sharing. i guess the person in the other room was not iran's supreme leader though apparently...
I think you should go over to Iran's supreme leader and teach him the same lesson!
What's interesting is that the "person in the other room" was probably one of the researchers testing your reaction to a $2 offer. When the Offerer is a study participant, they usually distribute the money more fairly. The researchers probably had to fabricate the $2 offer.
it was all students, the researchers didn't participate bc they wanted to see what would happen when two people who both had an interest at stake (we got to keep whatever was divied up) were asked to make a decision. so it was just some student who was unempathetic and he deserved to get $0. i'd rather be $2 poorer to make him realize he's a greedy jerk. when i was on the other side of the window, i divided my money 50/50.
Oh- very interesting. Enforcing the rules of fairness is worth $2 to me too.
Hi Stu!
My experience with WBLs made me conclude that I always get matched with the stingiest/dumbest people. I remember thinking during a lab that for all this kid's idiocy, he or she was very grammatically conscious. Now that you bring up the possibility that it was all staged, that makes much more sense...
Haha in Wharton, you can never be sure. Good to hear from you Alice!
Commenting by HaloScan
