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Is strong reciprocity really strong in the lab, let alone in the real world?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2012

Şule Güney  and
Ben R. Newell
Şule Güney
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. s.guney@unsw.edu.auhttp://www.psy.unsw.edu.au/profiles/phd/sguney.htmlben.newell@unsw.edu.auhttp://www2.psy.unsw.edu.au/Users/BNewell/
Ben R. Newell
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. s.guney@unsw.edu.auhttp://www.psy.unsw.edu.au/profiles/phd/sguney.htmlben.newell@unsw.edu.auhttp://www2.psy.unsw.edu.au/Users/BNewell/
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Abstract

We argue that standard experiments supporting the existence of “strong reciprocity” do not represent many cooperative situations outside the laboratory. More representative experiments that incorporate “earned” rather than “windfall” wealth also do not provide evidence for the impact of strong reciprocity on cooperation in contemporary real-life situations or in evolutionary history, supporting the main conclusions of the target article.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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