Comment by samatman

2 years ago

> It turns out you _could_ screw them over and they'd

End up with a dollar in their pocket which they otherwise wouldn't have.

The Ultimatum game is a useful insight into human psychology: for one thing, it tells us who thinks that the defector in this equilibrium is better off than a counterfactual cooperator.

Ah, but they have their pride! Ok. My pride is not affected by someone else having 99 bucks they didn't earn, and myself $1 likewise. Maybe that other fellow really needed the money.

I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Your argument is incoherent. If you wanted to allocate the money according to the individual's utility of money, then a rule of thumb of $1 is going to be wrong. You should, given no information, assume that both have the same utility of money and that the utility of money is diminishing, favouring an even split.