[MUD-Dev] Decision making...

[J C Lawrence]

From:

  http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5570554/site/newsweek/

Excerpt:

  Economists have many ways of demonstrating the irrationality of their
  favorite experimental animal, Homo sapiens. One is the "ultimatum
  game," which involves two subjects--researchers generally recruit
  undergraduates, but if you're doing this at home, feel free to use
  your own kids. Subject A gets 10 dollar bills. He can choose to give
  any number of them to subject B, who can accept or reject the
  offer. If she accepts, they split the money as A proposed; if she
  rejects A's offer, both get nothing. As predicted by the theories of
  mathematician John Nash (subject of the movie "A Beautiful Mind"), A
  makes the most money by offering one dollar to B, keeping nine for
  himself, and B should accept it, because one dollar is better than
  none.

  But if you ignore the equations and focus on how people actually
  behave, you see something different, says Jonathan D. Cohen, director
  of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior at
  Princeton. People playing B who receive only one or two dollars
  overwhelmingly reject the offer. Economists have no better explanation
  than simple spite over feeling shortchanged. This becomes clear when
  people play the same game against a computer. They tend to accept
  whatever they're offered, because why feel insulted by a machine? By
  the same token, most normal people playing A offer something close to
  an even split, averaging about $4. The only category of people who
  consistently play as game theory dictates, offering the minimum
  possible amount, are those who don't take into account the feelings of
  the other player. They are autistics.

-- 
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.

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