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fairness
You prioritize fairness only when it benefits you.
In the ultimatum game, participants often reject 'unfair' offers, even when rejecting means they lose all potential money themselves.
This behavior demonstrates that human fairness is motivated by emotional retaliation rather than pure economic rationality. If an offer feels insulting, you are willing to pay a personal cost just to punish the other party. You value the 'moral' correction of the imbalance over the gain.
Your sense of justice is often indistinguishable from your pride.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Güth, W., Schmittberger, R., & Schwarze, B., 1982, 'An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining'
- What the check found
- The phenomenon of rejecting low offers in the ultimatum game is a foundational, well-replicated result in experimental economics, though not universally identical across all human societies.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.