Do you steal or share? PURPLE MARBLES/AlamyWhile most people are fair in lab tests, where they can steal or share small amounts of money, in real life cheating and unfairness are common.The apparent contradiction now has a new explanation. When people can take money from groups of people in lab experiments, almost always do. However, the same people tend to be fair with only one person.Economists have been studying people's behavior for years using simple lab tests, such as the two person dictator game, in which one person receives a small amount of money and the other chooses whether to give it to their partner. Most people will give away some, even though they receive nothing in return. This suggests that we have an intrinsic sense for fairness.AdvertisementUnfairness is a common occurrence in real life. It can be anything from office workers not contributing their fair share to communal snacks to large-scale financial fraud. Many people assume that cheaters are rare or that only a few people do this. However, Carlos Als-Ferrer, a professor at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, said that many people believe that these people are exploitative and are just a small minority.Als-Ferrers created a new monetary test, the Big Robber Game, to investigate. This game allows unfair actions to affect larger numbers of people.Researchers asked 32-person groups to play in pairs the dictator game as well as two similar games. The results were identical to those seen in the past, except that most people behaved generously.Half of the group was also asked if it would be okay to steal some of the earnings from the other half. This averaged 200. They could either take half, a third, or a tenth of the total amount. This was repeated with 640 total people.98% of the 320 people who were given the option to robbery took at least part of the money, while 56% took half. The researchers did not allow everyone to go home with the exact amount they chose, but randomly selected one of the 16 robbers from each group to receive the sum.Als-Ferrer says that the findings show that people can be fair towards individuals while being selfish to larger groups. Both types of behavior are possible in humans.He says that people may behave differently in real life than they do in laboratory games. However, the findings suggest that economists should examine group interactions as well two-person interactions.Journal reference: Nature Human Behaviour, DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01170-0
