5. The Altruistic Man

Question 1

What are the 4 criteria of the carnegie medal that rules out self-interested motives for doing good deeds?

Answer 1

1) Must be voluntary
2) Actor must risk his/her own life to an extraordinary degree
3) Actor must not be directly related to the victim (no kin selection)
4) The actor must not be in an occupational role in which duty would have required the act

Question 2

Comparing the Genovese case where no one offered help and the NYC subway case where people offered help, what does this highlight?

Answer 2

The importance of communication
Genovese case – witnesses did not know that no one else rushed to woman’s assistance. Thought someone else had called the police. In the subway case, obvious that nobody else offered help, thus triggering the assistance by another passenger. Each person might want very much for someone to help the victim, and yet not want to be the one to do it.
Prisoners Dilemma – the higher the level of communication, the less likely someone will defect (more likely to cooperate) Communication established trust between the players that was hard to be betrayed afterward.

Question 3

Explain the bystander effect.

Answer 3

The presence of multiple witnesses at a tragedy can inhibit intervention. Suggest that when more than one subject is at the scene, there is a diffusion of responsibility. Responsibility is shared among all the onlookers. Hence each may be less likely to help.

Question 4

Give 2 possible reasons why economics students are more likely to act in accordance with the rationality paradigm and defect?

Answer 4

1) They are either indoctrinated by selfish economics theories, which causes selfishness.
2) They were already selfish rationality buffs to begin with, so they chose to study economics.

Question 5

What is the rationalist’s problem that the self-interest model repeatedly overlooks?

Answer 5

The rationalist tends to be excluded from many profitable exchanges after antagonising people by not cooperating.

Question 6

Do people cooperate more or less when they are on game shows when the stakes are high?

Answer 6

Cooperate more (40-50% of the time)

Question 7

Why is voting behavior considered irrational?

Answer 7

It is unlikely that a single vote vote will affect the outcome of any national election. Self-interest dictates a “free-ride” by staying home. But what if everyone who favours your candidate did that?! Rationalists suggest that people would be much more likely to vote when an election is expected to be close. Self-interest model cannot explain this irrational behavior.

Question 8

How does the commitment model explain people’s voting behavior? (2)

Answer 8

1) Democratic cultures teach that voting is a duty
2) There may be genuine material advantages in being known as the type of person who takes duty seriously so people strive to be such a person.

Question 9

What does the commitment model argue about altruistic behavior?

Answer 9

Commitment model predicts that the locus of control for altruistic behavior will be emotional rather than cognitive. Altruists are neither more nor less rational than non altruists, they are simply pursuing different goals.

Question 10

What is altruism correlated with?

Answer 10

SES! Altruists do better economically.

Question 11

What are possible reasons why altruism is correlated with SES?

Answer 11

1) Good natured people have more friends and helps you rise up the social ladder
2) Rich people are altruistic because they can afford to

Question 12

Evolutionary biology suggests 4 possible justifications for altruistic behavior, what are they?

Answer 12

1) kinship
2) reciprocity
3) reputation
4) Advertisement of dominance/superiority

Question 13

Describe kin altruism (or genetic altruism).

Answer 13

Helping your genetic kin is statistically likely to benefit copies of your own genes. Animals tend to care for, defend, share resources with, warn of danger, and show altruism towards close kin. You want your own genes to survive.

Question 14

Describe reciprocal altruism.

Answer 14

Help people in the hopes that they will help you back next time when you need it. Works well with members of widely different species (symbiosis) Reciprocal altruism works because of asymmetries in needs and in capacities to meet them. Works better between different species as the asymmetries are greater.

Question 15

Describe altruism to acquire a good reputation.

Answer 15

We learn which individuals in the social group can be relied upon to pay our debts, and which individuals cheat. Natural selection favors genes that predispose individuals to give when they can, and to seek help when they can’t. It also favors tendencies to remember obligations, bear grudges, police exchange relationships and punish cheats who take but don’t give back. Need to foster a reputation of being a good reciprocator so we behave altruistically.

Question 16

How do people behave altruistically to advertise their dominance or superiority?

Answer 16

‘Look how superior I am to you, I can afford to give you food.’ Only a genuinely superior individual can afford to advertise the fact by means of a costly gift. Individuals buy success (eg. attracting mates) through costly demonstrations of superiority, including ostentatious generosity and public-spirited risk taking.

Question 17

What does natural selection argue about why altruism still persists today?

Answer 17

Natural selection favours rule of thumb, which work in practice to promote the genes that built them. Rule of thumbs sometimes misfire. Urges to be altruistic are possibly misfirings or ‘mistakes’. Cognitive awareness of this irrationality does not diminish the urge to help, we cannot help it.

Question 18

What does the strong free-rider hypothesis predict?

Answer 18

Predicts that as the number of potential contributors grow, the amount each person will voluntarily contribute shrinks quickly to zero

Question 19

What are the 2 properties of public goods?

Answer 19

1) non-rivalrous: difficult to prevent people from consuming it
2) non-excludable: one person’s consumption does not diminish the value of consumption by others

Question 20

How do we use the commitment model to explain why people voluntarily contribute to the production of public goods?

Answer 20

Decisions about cooperation are not based on reason but on emotion. Suggests a basis for the association between communication and cooperation. To cheat a stranger vs to cheat a friend means the same thing on rational terms but not on emotional terms. Communication transforms the other parties from mere strangers into real people, making people more likely to voluntarily contribute rather than free ride.

Question 21

Describe the ultimatum game.

Answer 21

Two anonymous players play a game.
Player 1 is given $20. He can decide how much money to give to player 2. Once the offer is made, the other player may accept or reject it. If the second player accepts, the amount is split according to the offer. If he/she rejects, nobody gets anything.

Question 22

According to the economist, what is the winning strategy for the ultimatum game?

Answer 22

Since even a cent is more valuable than nothing, it makes sense for player 2 to accept the offer as low as $0.01.

Question 23

How does the economist’ theory differ from real life in predicting the ultimatum game?

Answer 23

Economist theory predicted that player 2 will accept any low offer because it is still better than nothing. But in reality, player 2s usually reject offers below $3. They were willing to pay to express their disgust at the lowball offer. On average, player 1s offered player 2s more than $6 to ward off rejection. Not really considered altruistic because player 1 had something to gain, which is the avoidance of rejection.

Question 24

Describe the dictator game.

Answer 24

One-off game. Player 1 is given the money and is asked whether he/she wants to share any amount with the other player. This is the end of the game. The other player doesn’t get to accept or reject the offer. Generosity could not be rewarded, nor could selfishness be punished.

Question 25

What were the surprising results of the dictator game?

Answer 25

75% of participants divided the money equally!!!

Suggests that human beings indeed seem to be hardwired for altruism!!

Question 26

What were the 3 variations of the dictator game by Johnlist?

Answer 26

1) give money or could steal a dollar
2) give money or could steal any amount
3) both came into the money honestly. give money or could steal any amount.

Question 27

What did the 3 variations of the dictator game demonstrate about altruism?

Answer 27

John list has made us realise that many seemingly altruistic acts no longer seem so altruistic after all. He has made us realised that we shouldn’t be asking if people are innately altruistic or not because people ultimately respond to incentives. People can nearly always be manipulated by incentives!

Question 28

Give 3 limitations of lab experiments that limits applicability to real life.

Answer 28

1) selection bias
2) scrutiny
3) context

Question 29

Describe why the selection bias is a limitation of lab experiments.

Answer 29

Participants are volunteers who may share certain benevolent characteristics
People who volunteer to play Dictator are probably more cooperative than the average person
John List’s example – found that dealers who declined to participate in the first round were on average the biggest cheaters in the second round.

Question 30

Describe why scrutiny is a limitation of lab experiments.

Answer 30

Participants feel the pressure of their behavior being scrutinized by the experimenter and behave accordingly. Our behavior can be changed by even subtle levels of scrutiny. In the dictator game where stakes are relatively low, no one wants to look cheap in front of somebody else, so you decide to just give away a few dollars but this is obviously not altruism.

Question 31

Describe why context is a limitation of lab experiments.

Answer 31

Participants behave in accordance with the context presented to them. In an altruism setting, they will behave altruistically.

Question 32

What is impure/warm glow altruism?

Answer 32

people give not so much to help the other person but so that they feel better or less bad about themselves. Argued that most giving is impure altruism.

Question 33

What is path dependence and which theory does it support? (deal or no deal game)

Answer 33

The way the game has played out influence the choices people make. supports prospect theory instead of standard economic theory. Respond to relative changes of wealth rather than states of wealth.

Question 34

In lab experiments, are students more or less willing to take risks?

Answer 34

more willing. (more risk averse in front of crowds)

Question 35

What is the big peanuts’ hypothesis?

Answer 35

When stakes were unusually low by the standards of the show, cooperation rates were exceptionally high. Idea is that certain amount of money can seem small or large depending on the context. (Eg. if contestants are competing for $500, it looks small in comparison to the grand prize of $20000. So they feel like they are playing for peanuts. So they rather be nice since they are on national TV anyway.)