Vaniver comments on Interlude for Behavioral Economics - Less Wrong

49 Post author: Yvain 06 July 2012 08:12PM

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Comment author: TraderJoe 06 July 2012 08:11:32AM 5 points [-]

The results: If you tell the second player that the first player defected, 3% still cooperate (apparently 3% of people are Jesus). If you tell the second player that the first player cooperated.........only 16% cooperate.

Is there really anything exceptional in the 3% figure? 3% of people facing a player who chose "Foe" preferred to transfer money from the game show owners to that player. 97% preferred the game show owners to keep the money. If anything, 3% is below what I would have expected. More surprising [IMO] is the fact that 16% co-operate when they know that it costs them to do so. I have no idea what that 16% were thinking.

Comment author: Vaniver 06 July 2012 10:35:21PM *  6 points [-]

I have no idea what that 16% were thinking.

My guess is those people were willing to pay to reward the other player for cooperating. (That is, they gain psychic value from the other person's gain, and knowing it was the result of their actions.)