I enjoyed this post. It brings a more world-wide view to LW (sorely missed in some things I’ve read here) and makes the important point that we don’t all think the same. Experiences can be very different and so are our reactions and reasonings, coming with there own logic. We should not ignore the human element of how the world works.
I would suggest a bit of an edit to move the description of the game with punishment to after the non-punishment results just for ease of reading and absorption.
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I also enjoyed reading the supporting material here which provided more insights into the process and participant selection. A study that stimulated a lot of thinking in me!(Would the results have been different if the groups had been grannies/hippies/etc.?)
The supporting materials contains some interesting diagrams. ( S3 and S4 )
My main comment would be that 10 rounds isn’t enough to draw conclusions from. With 4 players each ‘experimenting’ and reacting to the previous rounds it would take a lot more for things to settle and maybe reach some sort of equilibrium.
For example the what I’m calling the “F-U-2” response (see S4) led to a drop in cooperation in many locations, but would that have worn off with more rounds and people realising co-operation was in their favour after all?
[A comment for the authors of the study—seeing the individual group results would have been interesting—the distribution of free-riders per group etc.]
I enjoyed this post. It brings a more world-wide view to LW (sorely missed in some things I’ve read here) and makes the important point that we don’t all think the same. Experiences can be very different and so are our reactions and reasonings, coming with there own logic. We should not ignore the human element of how the world works.
I would suggest a bit of an edit to move the description of the game with punishment to after the non-punishment results just for ease of reading and absorption.
-- -
I also enjoyed reading the supporting material here which provided more insights into the process and participant selection. A study that stimulated a lot of thinking in me!(Would the results have been different if the groups had been grannies/hippies/etc.?)
The supporting materials contains some interesting diagrams. ( S3 and S4 )
My main comment would be that 10 rounds isn’t enough to draw conclusions from. With 4 players each ‘experimenting’ and reacting to the previous rounds it would take a lot more for things to settle and maybe reach some sort of equilibrium.
For example the what I’m calling the “F-U-2” response (see S4) led to a drop in cooperation in many locations, but would that have worn off with more rounds and people realising co-operation was in their favour after all?
[A comment for the authors of the study—seeing the individual group results would have been interesting—the distribution of free-riders per group etc.]