Generous with individuals and selfish to the masses

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Experimental Economics
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Recent corporate scandals suggest widespread economic selfishness.
• Behavioral economics studies show high prosociality in bilateral interactions.
• A discrepancy exists between observed economic behavior in large groups and small-scale interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate individual economic decision-making in a setting with potential for large-scale exploitation.
• To reconcile the apparent conflict between prosocial behavior in dyadic interactions and selfishness in group contexts.
• To empirically test whether individuals exhibit consistent behavior across different social and economic scales.

Main Methods:

• Design of the 'Big Robber' game, a novel experimental economic setting.
• Conducting a large-scale laboratory experiment with 640 participants (N=640).
• Administering established behavioral economics games (Dictator, Ultimatum, Trust) to the same participants.

Main Results:

• Over 50% of participants acting as 'robbers' appropriated the maximum possible earnings.
• A negligible number of participants refused to engage in the 'robbing' behavior.
• The same participants demonstrated typical prosocial behavior in bilateral Dictator, Ultimatum, and Trust games.

Conclusions:

• Individual selfishness in high-impact, large-group decisions is compatible with prosociality in low-stakes, bilateral interactions.
• Human behavior exhibits context-dependent economic decision-making, showing simultaneous generosity and group-level selfishness.
• Findings challenge a uniform view of human economic behavior, highlighting situational influences on fairness and exploitation.