From: Extropian Agro Forestry Ventures Inc. (megao@sk.sympatico.ca)
Date: Mon Mar 18 2002 - 11:40:41 MST
James Rogers wrote:
> Research like this is not conducive to making one an optimist.
>
> -James Rogers
> jamesr@best.com
>
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Kennita Watson <kennita@kennita.com>
> Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 12:07:45 -0800
> Subject: Research Shows Just How Much People Hate A Winner
>
> I recently received this chilling article on the cryonics mailing
> list I frequent. It goes a long way towards explaining why
> Libertarianism hasn't caught on, why the US is plagued by
> terrorism, and even why some individuals sometimes behave in
> petty or cruel manners, even to their own detriment. "What a
> piece of work is man" (Shakespeare)!
>
> Kennita
>
> ---- Original message follows ----
> Research Shows Just How Much People Hate A Winner
>
> New research by economists at the Universities of Warwick and Oxford in the
> UK has provided surprising insight into just how much people hate a winner.
>
> It also shows what lengths human beings are prepared to go to damage a
> winner out of a sense of envy or fairness.
>
> The researchers, Professor Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick and
> Dr. Daniel Zizzo of Oxford, designed a new kind of experiment, played with
> real cash, in which subjects could anonymously burn away other people s
> money -- but only at the cost of giving up some of their own.
>
> Despite this cost to themselves, and contrary to economists usual
> assumptions, 62% of those tested chose to destroy part of other test
> subjects cash. In the experiment, half of all the laboratory earnings were
> deliberately destroyed by fellow subjects.
>
> Everyone in the laboratory sessions was anonymous and hidden. The subjects
> had only a computer terminal, into which they played, and in which they
> could see how much other people were winning.
>
> In each session, the test subjects began with a betting stage which gave
> them some money (about 10 pounds, but sometimes much more), creating an
> unequal wealth distribution.
>
> In the final stage, the burning stage, subjects could if they wished
> eliminate ( burn away ) other people s money - but only by giving up some
> of their own cash winnings. At the most expensive level, they had to give
> up 25 pence to destroy 1 full pound owned by someone else.
>
> It was made clear to all subjects that burning others would reduce the cash
> of the person choosing to burn.
>
> The economists expected little burning, and especially that the laboratory
> subjects would stop destroying other people s money once the price reached
> 0.25, but in fact they found that even this high price did little to stop
> people from annihilating other people s wealth. Most individuals still
> chose to hurt others, despite the large cost to their own pocket.
>
> The researchers found that those who gained the most additional money at
> the betting stage burned poor and rich alike, while disadvantaged
> laboratory subjects mainly targeted those subjects they saw getting what
> they perceived as undeserved financial windfalls.
>
> The authors conclude that our experiment measures the dark side of human
> nature.
>
> (Reference: Are People Willing to Pay to Reduce Others Incomes? Annales
> D Economie et de Statistique, Special edition Vol 64 Feb 2002.)
>
> The full paper is in PDf format at this link
> http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/Economics/oswald/paris.pdf
>
> Professor Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics
> University of Warwick Tel: 024 76 523510 (Office)
> 01367 860005 (Home) Web http://www.oswald.co.uk
> email: andrew.oswald@warwick.ac.uk (office)
> a.j.oswald@oswald.co.uk(home)
>
> 13-Feb-2002
> --
> May you live long and prosper,
> Kennita
> --
> Kennita Watson | Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
> kennita@kennita.com | None but ourselves can free our minds.
> http://www.kennita.com | -- Bob Marley, "Redemption Song"
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:13:01 MST