VV o n g B a
06-02-2008, 04:59 PM
i thought this was pretty interesting. the wsj has an article (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121208469569629951.html?mod=hps_us_inside_today) saying that different countries react differently to punishment in the context of cooperation games.
Among students in the U.S., Switzerland, China and the U.K., those identified as freeloaders most often took their punishment as a spur to contribute more generously. But in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Greece and Russia, the freeloaders more often struck back, retaliating against those who punished them, even against those who had given most to everyone's benefit. It was akin to rapping the knuckles of the helping hand.
...
Among those punished, differences emerged immediately. Students in Seoul, Istanbul, Minsk in Belarus, Samara in Russia, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Athens, and Muscat in Oman were most likely to take revenge by deducting points from other players -- and to give up a token themselves to do it.
"They didn't believe they did anything wrong," said economist Herbert Gintis at New Mexico's Santa Fe Institute. And because the spiteful freeloaders had no way of knowing who had punished them, they often took out their ire on those who helped others most, suspecting they must be to blame.
there was a pew research study (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/799/global-social-trust-crime-corruption) that asked ppl in different nations if they agreed w/ the statement "Most people in society are trustworthy?"
surprisingly to me, china scored highest as did asia in general. from what i remember being told, trust in neighbors fell to abysmal levels during the cultural revolution so this apparent rebound happened pretty quickly. i don't find the game theory study as surprising b/c they only used university students, but the pew poll asked general society. maybe even then, only the rich ppl have phones? i wouldn't think the farmer or lowly factory worker is gonna have much trust when they're constantly cheated out of land and backpay.
also surprising, japan scored the lowest out of the asian nations polled. japan is such a homogeneous, rich and low crime society that i would have assumed most ppl trusted one another. that doesn't jibe w/ the public goods game results and i don't know why.
i'm also a bit surprised koreans would rate so low in trust. from my completely non-scientific observations, koreans college kids in the US are among the stickiest ethnicities in terms of association w/ other koreans and the relative difficulty for outsiders to get in. maybe it's different in korea b/c of chaebol and political corruption scandals? but those scandals could hardly be worse than bush deceiving the US into war...
Among students in the U.S., Switzerland, China and the U.K., those identified as freeloaders most often took their punishment as a spur to contribute more generously. But in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Greece and Russia, the freeloaders more often struck back, retaliating against those who punished them, even against those who had given most to everyone's benefit. It was akin to rapping the knuckles of the helping hand.
...
Among those punished, differences emerged immediately. Students in Seoul, Istanbul, Minsk in Belarus, Samara in Russia, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Athens, and Muscat in Oman were most likely to take revenge by deducting points from other players -- and to give up a token themselves to do it.
"They didn't believe they did anything wrong," said economist Herbert Gintis at New Mexico's Santa Fe Institute. And because the spiteful freeloaders had no way of knowing who had punished them, they often took out their ire on those who helped others most, suspecting they must be to blame.
there was a pew research study (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/799/global-social-trust-crime-corruption) that asked ppl in different nations if they agreed w/ the statement "Most people in society are trustworthy?"
surprisingly to me, china scored highest as did asia in general. from what i remember being told, trust in neighbors fell to abysmal levels during the cultural revolution so this apparent rebound happened pretty quickly. i don't find the game theory study as surprising b/c they only used university students, but the pew poll asked general society. maybe even then, only the rich ppl have phones? i wouldn't think the farmer or lowly factory worker is gonna have much trust when they're constantly cheated out of land and backpay.
also surprising, japan scored the lowest out of the asian nations polled. japan is such a homogeneous, rich and low crime society that i would have assumed most ppl trusted one another. that doesn't jibe w/ the public goods game results and i don't know why.
i'm also a bit surprised koreans would rate so low in trust. from my completely non-scientific observations, koreans college kids in the US are among the stickiest ethnicities in terms of association w/ other koreans and the relative difficulty for outsiders to get in. maybe it's different in korea b/c of chaebol and political corruption scandals? but those scandals could hardly be worse than bush deceiving the US into war...