In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies

• Published in: The American economic review Vol. 91; no. 2; pp. 73 - 78
• Main Authors: Henrich, Joseph, Boyd, Robert, Bowles, Samuel, Camerer, Colin, Fehr, Ernst, Gintis, Herbert, McElreath, Richard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nashville American Economic Association 01-05-2001
• Subjects: Behavior; Codes; Cooperation; Cross cultural studies; Decision theory; Dictators; Economic models; Economics; Economics and Social Behavior; Economists; Experiments; Fairness; Game theory; Games; Human behaviour; Manycountries; Modeling; Pain; Rational choice; Resource utilization; Sharing; Social behavior; Social conditions; Social conditions & trends; Social interaction; Studies; Transponders; Ultimatum game; University students; Welfare economics
• ISSN: 0002-8282; 1944-7981
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.91.2.73

Twelve experienced field researchers, working in 12 countries on five continents, recruited subjects from 15 small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions. While the results do not imply that economists should abandon the rational-actor framework, they do suggest 2 major revisions. First, the canonical model of the self-interested material payoff-maximizing actor is systematically violated. Second, preferences over economic choices are not exogenous as the canonical model would have it, but rather are shaped by the economic and social interactions of everyday life. Finally, the connection between experimental behavior and the structure of everyday economic life should provide an important clue in revising the canonical model of individual choice behavior.