Standard economic models assume people are self-interested and seek to maximize their monetary pay-offs in social interactions. However, people exhibit social preferences; that is, they base their choices partly on the outcomes others obtain in a social interaction and on what others belief about them.  

People care about fairness, and reciprocity affects behavior.   For example, people give gratuity to a waiter although they may be unlikely to ever return to the restaurant. On the negative side, customers who suspect a supplier treats them unfairly are likely to feel angry and may search for (possibly more costly) alternatives. People trust others and cooperate even though they risk losing monetary payoffs.

In our lab we study the interplay between the intuitive emotional system (System 1) and the deliberative rational system (System 2) in social preferences such as trust, honesty, reciprocity and cooperation.  Most previous research on the role of cognitive resources in individual decision making showed that when people are less able to use self-control, they are less rational and more prone to biases in decision making. Findings are less clear regarding decisions in social contexts.  Using knowledge from psychology about automaticity, self-control, emotion regulation and paradigms from behavioral economics such as the ultimatum game, the trust game and prisoner's dilemma we examine:

1.       The changes in social preferences with age and with learning

2.       The automaticity of  social preferences

3.       The effect of emotion and emotion regulation on social preferences.

 

Related publications:

 

1.       Bereby-Meyer, Y., & Roth, A. E. (2006). The speed of learning in noisy games: Partial reinforcement and the sustainability of cooperation. American Economic Review, 96, 1029-1042.

2.       Bereby-Meyer, Y., & Niederle, M. (2005).  Fairness in bargaining. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 56, 173-186.

3.       Bereby-Meyer, Y. (2012).  Reciprocity and uncertainty.  Comment on Francesco Guala: Reciprocity: Weak or Strong? What Punishment Experiments Do (and Do Not) Demonstrate. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 18-19.

4.       Shalvi, S.,Eldar, O.,  & Bereby-Meyer, Y. (2012). Honesty requires time (and lack of justifications). Psychological Science, 23, 1264-1270

5.       Bereby-Meyer, Y., & Fiks, S. (in press). Changes in Negative Reciprocity as a Function of Age. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

6.       Halali, E., Bereby-Meyer, Y., & Meiran, N. (in press). Between rationality and reciprocity: The social bright side of self-control failure.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

7.       Halali, E., Bereby-Meyer, Y., Ockenfels, A., (in press). Is it all about the self? The effect of self-control shortage on ultimatum game proposers. Frontiers in Human  Neuroscience.