On 10/5/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In this game, one subject (the dictator) is given $10.00, and is then > > given a choice - to either give part of the $10.00 to another subject, > > or to give nothing, or even to steal some or all of $10.00 from the > > other. Levitt says that apparently altruistic behavior found in this > > experiment is merely an artifact of the subjects trying to win the > > approval of the experimenter. > > I didn't know that he's the one who made that argument. Behaviorists > have responded to that. It'd be nice if there were an expert in the > house...
I think the argument is transparently bogus, so we don't need an in-house expert for this one. It can be summarized as: Behaviorist: I did an experiment with a Subject who given Selfish choice (S) and Unselfish choice (U) chose U, so she is clearly altruistic. Levitt: Ah, but the Subject gets peer approval (PA) and personal satisfaction (PS), so if you include these two variables you'll find that for subjects that choose U, it is really a selfish choice. (Levitt claims that prostitutes make more than architects, so I am sure showing unselfish=selfish is not really that hard for him.) > > > Behaviorists are to neo-classical > > economics, what Zeno's paradoxes are mathematical Analysis. > > I don't get the analogy. I meant that behaviorist criticisms can be (and are) "explained away" while preserving the selfish economic agent by introducing extra variables as needed, and therefore are as harmless to the neoclassical theory as Zeno's paradoxes are to Analysis. (For those unfamiliar, Zeno is the Greek philosopher who posed a number of famous paradoxes that greatly troubled the ancient mathematicians. All of these paradoxes stem from difficulties with the nature of the continuum - difficulties that modern Analysis has solved largely by sweeping them under the carpet. Such paradoxes can be safely ignored by most mathematicians not working in Foundations. The most famous of Zeno's paradoxes is that of Achilles and the tortoise: "Before Achilles can overtake the tortoise, he must first run to point A, where the tortoise started. But then the tortoise has crawled to point B. Now Achilles must run to point B. But the tortoise has gone to point C, etc. Achilles is stuck in a situation in which he gets closer and closer to the tortoise, but never catches him.") -raghu.
