Work

New Methods in Quantitative Ethnography

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: A new method for quantitatively documenting concerns for economic fairness has the potential for identifying variation in prosociality within and across societies. Multiple dictator games conducted in two small‐scale societies presented decision makers with a choice between an equitable and an inequitable payoff distribution. The games varied in terms of the type of inequality the decision maker faced and the cost to the decision maker of eliminating inequality. A novel set of statistical models directly links experimental results and player heterogeneity with the formal theory of inequality aversion. The experimental method can be generalized to allow maximum flexibility in data analysis.

Source: Current Anthropology

DOI: 10.1086/523016

Authors: Charles Efferson, Masanori Takezawa, Richard McElreath

Institutions: University of Zurich, Tilburg University, University of California, Davis

Language: English

Topic: Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Subfield: Safety Research

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, University of California, Davis