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30833: Re: [MUD-Dev] Decision making...

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From: "Tess Lowe" <tess@soulsong.org.uk>
Newsgroups: nu.kanga.list.mud-dev
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 08:51:13 +0100
References: [1]
Organization: Kanga.Nu
JC quoted from:

> http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5570554/site/newsweek/

>   But if you ignore the equations and focus on how people actually
>   behave, you see something different, says Jonathan D. Cohen,
>   director of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior
>   at Princeton. People playing B who receive only one or two
>   dollars overwhelmingly reject the offer. Economists have no
>   better explanation than simple spite over feeling shortchanged.

I'm not convinced that feeling "shortchanged" is all that
significant. I may well give up 1 or 2 dollars because I prefer the
satisfaction of seeing someone's greed thwarted, but if we up the
ante to $1million instead of just $1, you can be sure I'll be taking
it, even if the other player walks away with $9million. It's not
necessarily about how shortchanged I feel, but what value I place on
seeing the other player lose (and/or possibly changing their
behaviour for the future). I may 'pay' $1 for a momentary feeling of
smug self-righteousness, but I surely wont pay a million times that.

~Tess
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