I think the difference the author fails to take into account is (a) religious beliefs, (b) purchasing power, (c) economic class.
Respectively,
(a) Religious beliefs differ between countries and if someone believes that "sharing" is better than "self-interest" that will effect the outcome of this "game." This could help to explain why this country is relatively poor.
(b) $100 in the U.S. is equivalent to significantly more in this country...
(c) If everyone is very poor and you are very poor you're in the same boat, if your neighbors would be angry that you took $100 and left them out to dry this could be pretty bad for you. Even if this is not the case, you feel bound to these people and you likely don't want to "screw them over"
Just to provide some counter-points and discussion:
(a) Not everyone in the US is religious; and of those that are, not all religious people think of sharing in the same way. I think it would be difficult to say religion in the US is what causes people to split more equitably. Also we do not know the beliefs of the foreign populations in the article.
(b) In both cases it was a meaningful amount of money. The article stated it was worth a few days pay in one of the countries, $100 is about 2 days pay at minimum wage in the US.
(c)I think your point here speaks to the psyche of American's that the author writes about. It would be interesting to perform the game within "only poor" sample groups and "only wealthy" sample groups inside the US.
Comments
I think the difference the author fails to take into account is (a) religious beliefs, (b) purchasing power, (c) economic class.
Respectively,
(a) Religious beliefs differ between countries and if someone believes that "sharing" is better than "self-interest" that will effect the outcome of this "game." This could help to explain why this country is relatively poor.
(b) $100 in the U.S. is equivalent to significantly more in this country...
(c) If everyone is very poor and you are very poor you're in the same boat, if your neighbors would be angry that you took $100 and left them out to dry this could be pretty bad for you. Even if this is not the case, you feel bound to these people and you likely don't want to "screw them over"
Just to provide some counter-points and discussion:
(a) Not everyone in the US is religious; and of those that are, not all religious people think of sharing in the same way. I think it would be difficult to say religion in the US is what causes people to split more equitably. Also we do not know the beliefs of the foreign populations in the article.
(b) In both cases it was a meaningful amount of money. The article stated it was worth a few days pay in one of the countries, $100 is about 2 days pay at minimum wage in the US.
(c)I think your point here speaks to the psyche of American's that the author writes about. It would be interesting to perform the game within "only poor" sample groups and "only wealthy" sample groups inside the US.