Sideways Evolutionary psychology is about adaptation to one's environment. Where cultures differ environments differ: a hunter-gatherer tribe may be so closely interdependent that their optimal strategies in the ultimatum game would differ than those of people in more individualistic-independent environments. In a tribal setting, direct competition for resources or sexual partners might be more intense: in such a setting, if you're directly competing with the person proposing the split, it makes no sense to accept less than 50/50 - you're just giving them ...
"I wonder... How does one measure grief?"
Posted by: Waldheri | February 15, 2009 at 04:21 PM
Using as a proxy the length of time a person plays the song "Everybody Hurts" on repeat.
Joking aside, I imagine the scale of grief doesn't matter as much as relative values: would you be sadder if X happened or if Y happened? I suppose it could be monetized somehow ("I would pay 5 to avoid X-sadness but 8 to avoid Y-sadness.") but I doubt that would be really accurate except to show relative feelings of grief - in an experimental setting, most people would highball the amounts, but the rankings of what's sadder than what would probably still be accurate.