Is greed contagious? Four experimental studies

Feeling cold is contagious

Seeing someone plunge into an ice-cold bath induces feelings of cold. However, it was recently demonstrated that ie ing another’s skin temperature change also induces a small congruent temperature change in the observer. This synchronization suggests topdown influences on peripheral temperature regulation mechanisms and lends supports to somatic-simulation theories of inter-subjectivity.

Is Dishonesty Contagious

When an individual believes that peers are predominantly untruthful in a given situation, is he/she more likely to be untruthful in that situation? We study this question in deception experiments patterned after Gneezy (2005) and conducted in Arizona, California, and India. We find evidence that dishonesty is indeed contagious.

Is Crime Contagious?

Is Crime Contagious? Understanding whether criminal behavior is “contagious” is important for law enforcement and for policies that affect how people are sorted across social settings. We test the hypothesis that criminal behavior is contagious by using data from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized housing-mobility experiment to examine the extent to which lower localarea crime rates dec...

Is Obesity Socially Contagious?

Efficient Pythagorean trees: Greed is good

The Pythagorean tree is a fractal figure with a branching structure based upon the Pythagorean theorem. This paper describes the use of a greedy algorithm to encourage a homogenous spread of detail for asymmetrical trees and avoid localized regions of high detail. A model of prioritized branch growth based on this idea is used to optimize tree shape, allowing more visually interesting trees to ...