Definition of a "fair split" varies across cultures

Started by Jacob, March 01, 2013, 01:22:00 PM

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Jacob

Interesting article about behaviour, economics, psychology, and culture. Amongst other things, it points out how special Westerners are - especially Americans: http://www.psmag.com/magazines/pacific-standard-cover-story/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135/

Admiral Yi



Jacob

I think you get the bulk of the interesting parts in the first 30-50% of the article.

... and I realize I should have titled the thread "Americans are WEIRD"

crazy canuck

#4
Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 01, 2013, 01:33:12 PM
Pretty interesting but too goddamn long.

I have often wondered whether the advent of social media has begun to blunt our ability to read, understand and communicate with pieces of information larger than a few sentences.

fhdz

I read this one yesterday after a friend posted it on Facebook. It's fascinating.

The section about Western social scientists doing more penance than science was particularly apt, I thought.
and the horse you rode in on

MadImmortalMan

Kinda blows away the thinking that some single way of doing things can be applied globally over all of humanity. Marketing people know this, and market products differently in different cultures. Regrettably, political activists will probably always cling to the fiction that their idea of how to do things can be successfully applied to every society in the same manner.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Jacob on March 01, 2013, 01:36:03 PM
I think you get the bulk of the interesting parts in the first 30-50% of the article.

... and I realize I should have titled the thread "Americans are WEIRD"

The author asserts that but doesn't really document it very well.  Weird in what way?

The other interesting point in the article (the first being that different people have different conceptions of fair division) is that the soft social sciences are stuck between celebrating diversity and refusing to acknowledge the forms it takes.

Berkut

That is a really, really interesting article Jake.

Not only are we screwing up how we study cultures, we are doing so because the culture we are in per-disposes us to do so!
"If you think this has a happy ending, then you haven't been paying attention."

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Sheilbh

Let's bomb Russia!

PDH

I remember an psychological anthropology paper from a few years ago that basically showed the Western system of syllogistic logic is not universal.  Different cultures have experience basic logic that does not accept "if A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C" type of reasoning, despite similar regions of the brain being activated.

All of Bob's friends wear hats.
Mike is one of Bob's friends.
Does Mike wear a hat?

That could not be answered in entire regions, the main way of responding was "I can't see Mike, I don't know."  Culture is quite a filter for our weak little brains.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

Sheilbh

Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 01, 2013, 01:45:30 PM
The other interesting point in the article (the first being that different people have different conceptions of fair division) is that the soft social sciences are stuck between celebrating diversity and refusing to acknowledge the forms it takes.
I don't know. I think this is more your way of perceiving it :P My view is that there's been a shift away from 'celebrating diversity' for some time. Marxism, a lot of social psychology and other theories that have held sway at some point are other are similar in that they minimise the importance of culture.

Probably part of it has been a reaction against post-modernism on the one hand and cultural determinism on the other. Think of Pinker's work in linguistics for example, which is very against the idea of linguistic determinism (that the structure and nature of a language shapes the way we perceive the world) precisely because rationally we share a brain and evolutionary heritage that determines that. There's also solid work disproving many of the linguistic determinist arguments. The same sorts of language activates the same bits of the brain, for example cursing kicks off the basal ganglia. Even if a culture uses different language to describe space, direction or time, I believe there's papers that query how differently they experience them.

But I've always thought the swing to psychology and brain science above all other disciplines (whether linguistics, politics, economics or anthropology) has been a bit overdone. It strikes me as a theory that's valid and interesting and having its moment, but that we'll soon move on.

Also am I the only person who was baffled by the American reaction of punishing the other person? When I read the game I thought I'd take the money regardless because it's more than I came into the game with :mellow:
Let's bomb Russia!

derspiess

I dated a cheerleader that could do a pretty fair split :cool:
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

PDH

Quote from: derspiess on March 01, 2013, 02:28:34 PM
I dated a cheerleader that could do a pretty fair split :cool:

What, she dated you and the basketball team at the same time?
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
-Umberto Eco

-------
"I'm pretty sure my level of depression has nothing to do with how much of a fucking asshole you are."

-CdM

MadImmortalMan

Quote from: Sheilbh on March 01, 2013, 02:17:51 PM

Also am I the only person who was baffled by the American reaction of punishing the other person? When I read the game I thought I'd take the money regardless because it's more than I came into the game with :mellow:

I see that in stock trading too. Lots of traders feel like they did badly on a trade if they get out of a trade with a small profit and then the stock keeps going up. It's like the rest of the gains are losses to them even though it's completely not true. Opportunity costs I suppose.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers