Economic man in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies
Henrich and colleagues ran ultimatum, public goods and dictator games in 15 small-scale societies with a wide range of economic conditions, because earlier work showing departures from the self-interest model had used almost only university students. The self-interest model failed to predict behaviour in these societies, and behaviour varied far more between groups than earlier research had shown. Higher market integration and a larger role for social organisation and interaction in daily life went with more cooperative and prosocial play, individual demographic variables did not explain play consistently, and in many cases play mirrored patterns of everyday interaction in the group.
Henrich and colleagues ran ultimatum, public goods and dictator games in 15 small-scale societies with a wide range of economic conditions, because earlier work showing departures from the self-interest model had used almost only university students. The self-interest model failed to predict behaviour in these societies, and behaviour varied far more between groups than earlier research had shown. Higher market integration and a larger role for social organisation and interaction in daily life went with more cooperative and prosocial play, individual demographic variables did not explain play consistently, and in many cases play mirrored patterns of everyday interaction in the group.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-27 via OpenAlex.
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Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., et al. (2005). Economic man in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(6), 795-815. doi:10.1017/S0140525X05000142