Master Class [91]: Individualism Versus Collectivism

In this game, each participant gets 7 clothespins. The goal is to attach as many clothespins as possible to the other participants. After 30 seconds play stops and clothespins are counted.

Round 2 follows with the aim of removing as many clothespins as possible from the others. The participants fight for the clothespins. After 30 seconds again play is stopped and clothespins are counted.

The game host now asks the participants why they fought against each other. He never said anything about competition. Through cooperation, they would have progressed much further (The game was explained in a talk by Dirk von Vopelius in Nuremberg on June 10th, 2015).

Social morality, or better ethos, as moral behavior in practice, is a public good in economic terms. The benefits of cooperative, considerate, and polite behavior of society benefit all who are a part of it. The benefit is arbitrarily divisible, so not rival, and no one can be excluded. This also applies to teamwork. There is a free-rider problem, however. There is an incentive not to participate in the group performance because one cannot be excluded from the group’s success.

Rational utility maximization, however, does not necessarily mean harm to third parties. For example, in game theory, multi-round games show that decision-makers learn from their decisions and take into account the other’s harmful counter-reaction, which is why they no longer maximize their usefulness in the short term.

From a game theory point of view, games over several rounds have shown