Economic Games Among the Amazonian Tsimane: Exploring the Roles of Market Access, Costs of Giving, and Cooperation on Pro-Social Game Behavior
Abstract
This paper reports the results of the Ultimatum Game (UG), Dictator Game (DG) and Public Goods Game (PGG) played among the Tsimane, a group of forager-horticulturalists living in the Bolivian Amazon. Game results differ significantly from those commonly reported among modern, westernized populations. Without a long history of anonymous interactions, it is highly suspect whether the Tsimane or other traditional populations play economic games under assumptions of anonymity and one-shot exposure. Employing a behavioral ecology framework, I test predictions that differential market exposure, costs of giving, and experience with cooperation can help explain much of the variance in game outcomes. While these factors sometimes act as important predictors of game behavior, the most significant predictor is village membership. Implications for understanding the role of markets, frequent interaction with strangers, and payoffs to cooperation in daily life can help us better understand cross-cultural variation in pro-social behavior. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Springer in its journal Experimental Economics.
Volume (Year): 7 (2004)
Issue (Month): 1 (February)
Pages: 5-24
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Web page: http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=102888
Related research
Keywords: experimental economics; fairness; Tsimane; cooperation;References
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Godoy, Ricardo A. & Leonard, William R. & Reyes-Garcia, Victoria & Goodman, Elizabeth & McDade, Thomas & Huanca, Tomas & Tanner, Susan & Vadez, Vincent, 2006. "Physical stature of adult Tsimane' Amerindians, Bolivian Amazon in the 20th century," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 184-205, June.
- Gurven, Michael & Zanolini, Arianna & Schniter, Eric, 2008. "Culture sometimes matters: Intra-cultural variation in pro-social behavior among Tsimane Amerindians," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(3-4), pages 587-607, September.
- Anderies, John M. & Janssen, Marco A. & Bousquet, François & Cardenas, Juan-Camilo & Castillo, Daniel & Lopez, Maria-Claudio & Tobias, Robert & Vollan, Björn & Wutich, Amber, 2011. "The challenge of understanding decisions in experimental studies of common pool resource governance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1571-1579, July.
- Barham, James & Chitemi, Clarence, 2008. "Collective action initiatives to improve marketing performance: Lessons from farmer groups in Tanzania," CAPRi working papers 74, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
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