Accidental Outcomes Guide Punishment in a 'Trembling Hand' Game
View/ Open
Author
Cushman, Fiery
Dreber, Anna
Wang, Ying
Costa, Jay
Santos, Laurie
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006699Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Cushman, Fiery, Anna Dreber, Ying Wang, and Jay Costa. 2009. “Accidental Outcomes Guide Punishment in a ‘Trembling Hand’ Game.” Edited by Laurie Santos. PLoS ONE 4 (8): e6699. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0006699.Abstract
How do people respond to others' accidental behaviors? Reward and punishment for an accident might depend on the actor's intentions, or instead on the unintended outcomes she brings about. Yet, existing paradigms in experimental economics do not include the possibility of accidental monetary allocations. We explore the balance of outcomes and intentions in a two-player economic game where monetary allocations are made with a "trembling hand'': that is, intentions and outcomes are sometimes mismatched. Player 1 allocates $10 between herself and Player 2 by rolling one of three dice. One die has a high probability of a selfish outcome, another has a high probability of a fair outcome, and the third has a high probability of a generous outcome. Based on Player 1's choice of die, Player 2 can infer her intentions. However, any of the three die can yield any of the three possible outcomes. Player 2 is given the opportunity to respond to Player 1's allocation by adding to or subtracting from Player 1's payoff. We find that Player 2's responses are influenced substantially by the accidental outcome of Player 1's roll of the die. Comparison to control conditions suggests that in contexts where the allocation is at least partially under the control of Player 1, Player 2 will punish Player 1 accountable for unintentional negative outcomes. In addition, Player 2's responses are influenced by Player 1's intention. However, Player 2 tends to modulate his responses substantially more for selfish intentions than for generous intentions. This novel economic game provides new insight into the psychological mechanisms underlying social preferences for fairness and retribution.Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41461289
Collections
- FAS Scholarly Articles [18172]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)