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People Playing Games: The Human Face of Experimental Economics
Author(s) -
Eckel Catherine C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2007.tb00807.x
Subject(s) - attractiveness , altruism (biology) , trustworthiness , social psychology , psychology , physical attractiveness , test (biology) , face (sociological concept) , tone (literature) , measure (data warehouse) , experimental economics , economics , microeconomics , sociology , computer science , social science , paleontology , art , literature , database , psychoanalysis , biology
Experiments can be used not only to test theory but also to measure preferences and assess heterogeneity of behavior. I discuss the design of experimental measures of altruism and trust, as well as their uses in assessing how behavior varies across individuals, and across partners that a given individual might encounter. Experiments show that women are more altruistic than men. The appearance of a partner substantially impacts trust and trustworthiness, in part through the association of attractiveness and skin tone with expectations about a partner's behavior.