In recent years, scholars have turned to alternative representations of utility to capture motivational heterogeneity across individuals. In the research reported here, we examine two models of heterogeneous utility—linear-altruism and inequity-aversion—in the context of two-person, social dilemma games. Empirical tests are conducted drawing on data from experiments and surveys. We find that th...

The approximated cost-benefit function of pollution abatement from two integrated assessment models are employed in constructing of social welfare functions (SWF). Following a normative approach and evaluating equally the environmental goods in rich and poor countries, furthermore using distributional weights, a relation between elasticity of marginal utility e and inequality aversion parameter...

The present study was designed to investigate the disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversion of young older adults in situations which allowed them maximize or minimize payoff inequalities. Given very limited evidence regarding an actual age-related effect on aversion, purpose this examine question using economic game, “the Give-and-Take Game”, is able circumvent certain limitations Ult...

Cooperation is only beneficial if the outcome is equally shared between individuals involved in the cooperative interaction. A mechanism to limit the development of unequal cooperation is inequity aversion, the negative reaction to unequal treatment. While inequity aversion has been studied extensively across many animal species, it remains unclear whether inequity aversion elicited in experime...

Previous research has demonstrated that negative attitudes towards people with physical disabilities and obesity are predicted by a component of perceived vulnerability to disease; germ aversion. These findings have been suggested as illustrations of an evolved but over-active mechanism which promotes the avoidance of pathogen-carrying individuals. To date, this interpretation of attitude forma...

Consumers with inequity aversion experience some psychological disutility when buying products at unfair prices. Empirical evidence and behavioral research suggest that consumers may perceive a firm’s price as unfair when its profit margin is too high relative to consumers’ surplus. We develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the effects of the consumer’s inequity aversion on a firm’s pric...

The punishment of social misconduct is a powerful mechanism for stabilizing high levels of cooperation among unrelated individuals. It is regularly assumed that humans have a universal disposition to punish social norm violators, which is sometimes labelled "universal structure of human morality" or "pure aversion to social betrayal". Here we present evidence that, contrary to this hypothesis, ...