I think I found the missing intuition from a participant (“Data—Study S2”): “Because if you add one dollar it is equivalent to adding power to the party in question. If you take away one dollar from a party it does not give power to the other party. Also, if it’s better to be judged by your own party as cheap or bad than to be called a betrayer.”
People who have strong views in politics also tend to be involved in party events. So imagine someone who goes to rallies and fundraisers. They are constantly being bombarded with requests for money. This is a bit annoying and the participants turn down opportunities to donate all the time.
So decreasing a donation to your party is a slightly bad thing you do all the time. It’s very much expected that you don’t donate at each fundraiser. At some point it becomes the same as taking an extra dounut. It becomes a mundane sin instead of a moral one. Something shitty that everyone does. And people very much judge themselves for moral sins, and will generally prefer to make a mundane one instead. And I think people view influencing others’ donations the same way, since they are also exhorted to seek donations from friends/relatives.
But donating to the opposition is still a moral sin, of course. Hence why 28% of participants prefered to take $10 from their in-group instead of giving $1 to the outgroup.
I think this is a plausible alternative explanation that can also explain the results of the “win-win” condition. Taking money, even from a rival group, is still kinda immoral, in most peoples’ minds. But giving to your own group doesn’t trigger any negative emotions, hence why it was preferred. I will follow up on this later, but I think this hypothesis can be tested with the available information.
Also, another interesting fact: the proportion of people who took money away from the out-group in the “win-win” is roughly equal to the proportion of respondents who responded with “both parties should have less money on principle” in the “lose-lose” condition. This is important, even if I can’t quite figure out why yet.
I think I found the missing intuition from a participant (“Data—Study S2”): “Because if you add one dollar it is equivalent to adding power to the party in question. If you take away one dollar from a party it does not give power to the other party. Also, if it’s better to be judged by your own party as cheap or bad than to be called a betrayer.”
People who have strong views in politics also tend to be involved in party events. So imagine someone who goes to rallies and fundraisers. They are constantly being bombarded with requests for money. This is a bit annoying and the participants turn down opportunities to donate all the time.
So decreasing a donation to your party is a slightly bad thing you do all the time. It’s very much expected that you don’t donate at each fundraiser. At some point it becomes the same as taking an extra dounut. It becomes a mundane sin instead of a moral one. Something shitty that everyone does. And people very much judge themselves for moral sins, and will generally prefer to make a mundane one instead. And I think people view influencing others’ donations the same way, since they are also exhorted to seek donations from friends/relatives.
But donating to the opposition is still a moral sin, of course. Hence why 28% of participants prefered to take $10 from their in-group instead of giving $1 to the outgroup.
I think this is a plausible alternative explanation that can also explain the results of the “win-win” condition. Taking money, even from a rival group, is still kinda immoral, in most peoples’ minds. But giving to your own group doesn’t trigger any negative emotions, hence why it was preferred. I will follow up on this later, but I think this hypothesis can be tested with the available information.
Also, another interesting fact: the proportion of people who took money away from the out-group in the “win-win” is roughly equal to the proportion of respondents who responded with “both parties should have less money on principle” in the “lose-lose” condition. This is important, even if I can’t quite figure out why yet.