Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
However, there does seem to be another factor in play. If the Receiver doesn't
give a lot of money to the Giver in the first place (and the Giver knows this), then the
Giver is less likely to give more of it back to the Receiver. This introduces another
dynamic—one that seems to affect the factor of altruism. Let's call this one “spite.�
If the Receiver trusts the Giver with a large amount of money, for example, the
Giver may feel the same altruism that he would feel in the Dictator game. However,
as the amount of money the Receiver trusts the Giver with declines, so does the
likelihood and size of the amount the Giver gives back. It is as if the Giver is saying
“OK, fine… if you don't trust me, I'm not going to reward you.�
Interestingly, when these experiments are repeated with the same partners, they
very rarely end in what is actually the perfect single game equilibrium of “no trust.�
That is, the Receiver gives nothing at all to the Giver. One could account for this in
that the researchers are kicking in a little to encourage it to begin with, but still, it
also may have something to do with the fact that something else is going on in the
Receiver's psyche. Does the Receiver have a “need� to feel trust
worthy
? Is that pride?
Avoidance of shame? You can see how the more we delve into this, the further away
from simple logical, mathematical explanations we drift.
We also can begin to see why there are often differences between the purely
mathematical normative decision theory models and the more anecdotal descriptive
decision theory ones. It is not only the inability of agents to calculate in a completely
rational fashion but also the inclusion of messy emotions like fear, spite, pride, and
shame that make decisions a bit more difficult to predict. Remember the difference
between Tic-Tac-Toe and Poker? The calculations were simple to make in Tic-Tac-
Toe. Your opponent's move was just as simple to predict. With Poker, we add a little
more complication and a
lot
of psychology, and the choices get very interesting.
