Just rewards: Study of children challenges economists’ notions of rational behavior
Just rewards: Study of children challenges economists’ notions of rational behavior
A Harvard University study built around an innovative economic game indicates that, at least for our younger selves, the desire for equity often trumps the urge to maximize rewards.
“We were able to show that 8 year olds have a general sense of fairness and are willing to make large sacrifices to enforce it with other children,” said Peter Blake, at the time a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics and now an assistant professor at BU. Blake coauthored the study with Katherine McAuliffe, a doctoral student at Harvard’s Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. “Children younger than 8 are more self-interested, yet they’re still willing to deny themselves rewards in order to prevent a transaction that’s unfair to them,” said Blake.
