FWIW I first read this post before this comment was written, then happened to think about it again today and had this idea, and came here to post it.
I do think it’s a dangerous fallacy to assume mutually-altruistic equilibria are optimal—‘I take care of me, you take care of you’ is sometimes more efficient than ‘you take care of me, I take care of you’.
Maybe someone needs to study whether Western countries ever exhibit “antisocial cooperation,” that is, an equilibrium of enforced public contributions in an “inefficient public goods game” where each of four players gets 20% of the central pool. Might be more likely if you structure it as tokens starting out in the center and players have the option to take them? (Call it the ‘enclosure game’, perhaps)
I’ll lump two thoughts in here—one relates to SilentCat the other elsewhere but...
Like others I think this is a great insight and should be looked at by the authors, or other interested social scientists. I think it relates to a question I ask myself from time to time, though generally don’t get too far in answering. Where do we draw the line between public and private spheres of action?
I don’t think that is a fixed/static division over time and seems to have important implication for public policy. I’m tempted to say it might with the above proposed efficiency division. I’m not sure though.
The over-all results and some of the other comments also made me wonder if history—particularly as most of these locations seem to have been former USSR members. I’m just wondering if perhaps the culture legacy would support the behavior if innocent people were just as likely to be punished for what might be actions of other attempting to make everyone’s lives better (but often I suspect viewed as a threat to the authorities and government powers).
Nice idea. Maybe all the tokens should start in the pool and the players should have an option to withdraw them. I guess that would make people feel more explicitly “anti-social” if they did so.
FWIW I first read this post before this comment was written, then happened to think about it again today and had this idea, and came here to post it.
I do think it’s a dangerous fallacy to assume mutually-altruistic equilibria are optimal—‘I take care of me, you take care of you’ is sometimes more efficient than ‘you take care of me, I take care of you’.
Maybe someone needs to study whether Western countries ever exhibit “antisocial cooperation,” that is, an equilibrium of enforced public contributions in an “inefficient public goods game” where each of four players gets 20% of the central pool. Might be more likely if you structure it as tokens starting out in the center and players have the option to take them? (Call it the ‘enclosure game’, perhaps)
Ooh, I like this (while being aware that there’s a decent chance I’d be the sort of person who’d unreflectively do it)
I’ll lump two thoughts in here—one relates to SilentCat the other elsewhere but...
Like others I think this is a great insight and should be looked at by the authors, or other interested social scientists. I think it relates to a question I ask myself from time to time, though generally don’t get too far in answering. Where do we draw the line between public and private spheres of action?
I don’t think that is a fixed/static division over time and seems to have important implication for public policy. I’m tempted to say it might with the above proposed efficiency division. I’m not sure though.
The over-all results and some of the other comments also made me wonder if history—particularly as most of these locations seem to have been former USSR members. I’m just wondering if perhaps the culture legacy would support the behavior if innocent people were just as likely to be punished for what might be actions of other attempting to make everyone’s lives better (but often I suspect viewed as a threat to the authorities and government powers).
Nice idea. Maybe all the tokens should start in the pool and the players should have an option to withdraw them. I guess that would make people feel more explicitly “anti-social” if they did so.