Engineering Human Cooperation

Terence C. Burnham; Brian Hare

doi:10.1007/s12110-007-9012-2

Human Nature

June 2007, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp 88–108

Engineering Human Cooperation

Does Involuntary Neural Activation Increase Public Goods Contributions?

Authors
Authors and affiliations

Terence C. BurnhamEmail author
Brian Hare

Article

First Online:: 04 July 2007

Received:: 30 August 2004
Accepted:: 27 January 2005

DOI: 10.1007/s12110-007-9012-2

Cite this article as:: Burnham, T.C. & Hare, B. Hum Nat (2007) 18: 88. doi:10.1007/s12110-007-9012-2

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Abstract

In a laboratory experiment, we use a public goods game to examine the hypothesis that human subjects use an involuntary eye-detector mechanism for evaluating the level of privacy. Half of our subjects are “watched” by images of a robot presented on their computer screen. The robot—named Kismet and invented at MIT—is constructed from objects that are obviously not human with the exception of its eyes. In our experiment, Kismet produces a significant difference in behavior that is not consistent with existing economic models of preferences, either self- or other-regarding. Subjects who are “watched” by Kismet contribute 29% more to the public good than do subjects in the same setting without Kismet.

Keywords

AltruismProximate causationPublic goodsReciprocityTinbergen

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Authors and Affiliations

Terence C. Burnham
- 1
Email author
Brian Hare
- 2

1.Program for Evolutionary DynamicsHarvard UniversityCambridgeUSA
2.Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyLeipzigGermany

Engineering Human Cooperation

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