The Roots of Human Sociality
An Ethno-Experimental Exploration of the Foundations of Economic Norms
In economic experiments
carried out in less developed small-scale societies around the world, a group of
anthropologists and economists has found consistent deviations from experimental
patterns observed among populations in highly developed societies. While the
latter experiments have mostly been conducted with university undergraduates,
the subjects in all of these small-scale societies are more representative of
their populations and for this reason the data may tell us more about the
underlying societal social norms revealed in the experimental games. These
experiments were carried out among foragers, horticulturalists, nomadic herders,
cash-crop farmers, and small communities in the United States. The researchers
have run ultimatum, public goods, dictator, trust, and double-blind dictator
games. Coordination of protocols and collection of community and individual
socio-economic variables afford the opportunity to test many propositions
regarding the evolution of pro-social norms within and across societies.
The project has consisted of two phases so far: