THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYParapsychology
Almost as ubiquitous as religious belief are reports of paranormal
experiences: ghostly sightings, weird coincidences, mind-reading and
alien abduction. In some ways the two realms are related. A religious
person who feels a presence in a room might interpret the sensation
as a connection with God, whereas an atheist might see the same
The economic games psychologists play
Real-life cooperative situations are so complicated that it can be
difficult to isolate the precise psychological factors involved. To get
around this problem psychologists and behavioural economists have
devised a number of games:
T The Ultimatum Game Player A is given a set amount of money and
must decide how much to share with Player B. Player B knows how
much Player A started with and must decide whether to accept or
decline the offer. If B chooses to reject A’s offer, then neither party
gets anything. People frequently choose to reject unfair offers, even
though this means they lose out too.
T The Prisoner’s Dilemma Another two-player game. In each round,
both players must decide whether to “cooperate” or “defect”. If they
cooperate, they each make some kind of gain. If both defect, neither
gets anything. If one player cooperates and the other defects, then
only the defector gains. Martin Nowak’s study (see p.235) intro-
duced the option to pay a small fee to punish a defector. Although
this option increased cooperation, the most successful players were
those who refrained from dishing out punishment, responding
instead by defecting themselves. The name of the game comes
from the real-life situation in which two crime suspects have the
option of betraying their partner, thus going free, or both staying
silent so that both receive a light sentence.
T The Public Goods Game A group of players choose in private how
much money to invest in the collective kitty. In each round, the
rules dictate that the kitty gets multiplied and the proceeds divided
equally among the players, regardless of their chosen investment.
Each person’s chosen investment is also revealed to the others.
The group gains the most if every individual invests the maximum
amount. However, a “freeloading” individual can boost his or her
own profits by withholding investment while still cashing in on the
returns. The ability to punish freeloaders has been shown to boost
cooperation levels in this game.