Description
Book SynopsisWhat motives underlie the ways humans interact socially? Are these the same for all societies? Are these part of our nature, or influenced by our environments?Over the last decade, research in experimental economics has emphatically falsified the textbook representation of Homo economicus. Literally hundreds of experiments suggest that people care not only about their own material payoffs, but also about such things as fairness, equity and reciprocity. However, this research left fundamental questions unanswered: Are such social preferences stable components of human nature; or, are they modulated by economic, social and cultural environments? Until now, experimental research could not address this question because virtually all subjects had been university students, and while there are cultural differences among student populations throughout the world, these differences are small compared to the full range of human social and cultural environments. A vast amount of ethnographic and h
Trade ReviewIn my opinion this is one of the major social science projects of the last 20 years. * Professor Elinor Ostrom, University of Indiana *
Table of Contents1. Introduction and Guide to the Volume ; 2. Overview and Synthesis ; 3. Measuring Social Norms and Preferences Using Experimental Games: A Guide for Social Sciences ; 4. Coalitional Effects on Reciprocal Fairness in the Ultimatum Game: A Case from the Ecuadorian Amazon ; 5. Comparative Experimental Evidence from Machiguenga, Mapuche, Huinca, and American Populations Shows Substantial Variation Among Social Groups in Bargaining and Public Goods Behavior ; 6. Dictators and Ultimatums in an Egalitarian Society of Hunter-Gatherers - the Hadza of Tanzania ; 7. Does Market Exposure Affect Economic Game Behavior? The Ultimatum Game and the Public Goods Game Among the Tsimane of Bolivia ; 8. Market Integration, Reciprocity, and Fairness in Rural Papua New Guinea: Results from a Two-Village Ultimatum Game Experiment ; 9. Ultimatum Game with an Ethnicity Manipulation: Results from Khovdiin Bulgan Sum, Mongolia ; 10. Kinship, Familiarity, and Trust: An Experimental Investigation ; 11. Community Structure, Mobility, and the Strength of Norms in an Africa Society: the Sangu of Tanzania ; 12. Market Integration and Fairness: Evidence from Ultimatum, Dictator, and Public Goods Experiments in East Africa ; 13. Economic Experiments to Examine Fairness and Cooperation among the Ache Indians of Paraguay ; 14. The Ultimatum Game, Fairness, and Cooperation among Big Game Hunters
