Ultimatum Game

My favorite economic game is the Ultimatum Game. This is an economic game in which two players interact to split a sum of money. The first player proposes an offer that the second player either has to accept or reject. If the second player accepts the first player’s offer, then they split the money according to the offer. However, if the second player rejects the offer, then neither of the players wins any money.

This is my favorite economic game because studies have shown that people do actually reject offers. In my opinion, rejecting an offer makes no sense at all, even if the offer is too small or imbalanced. I could understand someone rejecting an unfair offer to save his or her pride, but in a game where one’s opponent is a computer, I just do not understand why someone would ever reject an offer.

 

Above is a short video clip explaining the Ultimatum Game in terms of two children dividing a dozen cookies.

Violating a Social Norm

I was brainstorming of all the possible things I could do to violate a social norm, but felt that by doing some of them, such as randomly standing up and doing twenty-five jumping jacks in the middle of class, I would severely put my reputation at stake. Social norms, or the unwritten laws of our society that tell us what behavior is acceptable and what is not, take some courage to break. My reluctance to do such tasks like jumping jacks in the middle of class goes to show just how powerful social norms are in guiding our behavior in society. In the end, I decided that for my violation of a social norm, I would cut in line. 

People waiting in line for the iPhone5

Standing in line, or waiting one’s turn, is a very common practice that people do almost everyday when there are only a certain number of people that can be helped or served at any given time. Waiting in line can be boring and sometimes even frustrating since the item or service that is wanted is in high demand. Unfairly gaining an advantage by cutting in line is disrespectful to other people who have been patiently waiting their turn and they are likely to get upset.

Upon violating this social norm at Au Bon Pain, I expected someone to react and get upset and tell me to wait my turn or go to the back of the line. However, no one said anything to me and I didn’t even notice any dirty looks. Perhaps no one noticed that I cut or didn’t feel like speaking up to tell me to get back in line. Either way, violating this social norm was a bit uncomfortable, but in the end worth it as I got my sandwich about 10 minutes earlier than I would have if I hadn’t cut.

A song that goes along with my theme of waiting:

What are you Waiting For by Sebastian Ingrosso

Hormones

A case that comes to mind when I think hormones affected someone’s behavior was a time during my freshman year when I went out to a party with a friend. My friend and his girlfriend had just broken up and he was devastated. We decided to go to a party at UNC and help him get his mind off the subject. He drank a lot of alcohol before the party and even though I had seen him drink this much, I hadn’t seen him act this way before. After drinking he soon became very aggressive and belligerent (very atypical behavior for him) and eventually got himself in an altercation that lead to a fistfight. The next morning, except for cuts and bruises, he seemed to have forgotten the whole event and was “moving on.”

Testosterone

Now that I think back on the event, I’m thinking that the break up with his girlfriend triggered a surge of hormones that caused him to react the way he did. I’m not sure which hormones caused him to behave this way, but some studies have found that aggressive and irrational behavior in males aged 13 to 20 tends to rise when testosterone levels are high. Due to an increase in his testosterone levels, the fistfight may have acted as an outlet for all his built up tension, which allowed him to start getting over the break up. 

Testosterone

Emotion

To me, there is no one thing that can describe emotion. Human emotion is very complex in that there is no one single thing that must be present and if present means that there must be an emotion associated with it. Emotions are sometimes there for purposes of communication in that nearly all emotions have a signal in our faces or voice that informs others to an extent what we are feeling. I also think that emotions can signal to other species (such as dogs) what we are feeling.

The six universal human emotions

From studying emotion, I’ve learned that some are universal across people, such as anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise and enjoyment. However, these can often be broken down in several, very distinct categories. For example, enjoyment can be broken down into relief or amusement. These emotions share the same basic facial expression (a smile along with the flexion of muscles around our eyes), but in terms of voice, they are expressed very differently.

Also, another aspect I think is important in defining emotion is that neither observers nor the person feeling the emotion can always pinpoint the object or event that triggered the specific emotion. Emotions can be triggered by almost anything, whether it’s from one’s memory to imagination to the weather, people can become emotional about almost anything (sometimes you don’t even know why you’re emotional). Emotions can also occur very briefly. They aren’t voluntary in that they seem to just happen to us - from one moment to the next you may be happy and then sad.

In the Youtube clip above, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson of UNC discusses positive emotions. Hopefully in the future, we will be able to use fMRI and other techniques to look at the activity of the brain associated with specific emotions and be able to decipher what exactly a particular emotion.

Thermal Grill Illusion

As a child, I remember being amazed by the thermal grill perceptual illusion in a science museum. In this illusion, subjects feel an unpleasant burning sensation when simultaneously touching juxtaposed cold and warm bars of a grill. However, when touching only warm bars or only cold bars, the subject does not report a feeling of pain (just the warm or cool temperatures).

Thermography of the grill surface. Panel C results in the Thermal Grill Illusion (alternating warm and cold temperatures)

In an interesting fMRI study, researchers (Lindstedt et al.) examined this phenomenon of the thermal grill illusion. It was known that touching warm and cold temperatures at the same time caused an imbalance of firing from spinal neurons, but more neurophysiological evidence and spatio-temporal data on human brain function was needed. In the Lindstedt at al. study, participants placed their left leg on the cold and warm bars on the surface of the grill so their calf muscle was in contact with the stimulating surface. While their leg was being stimulated, fMRI recordings were taken from their brain to image the supraspinal activation from the thermal grill illusion. After statistically analyzing the results, the most notable finding was a strong activation of the contralateral thalamus as compared to the patterns of activation seen by its constituent temperatures.

Thermal Grill Illusion activation (right thalamus) vs. constituent cold or warm activation

The results of this study are really interesting as they can be compared to future fMRI studies analyzing neuropathic pain. 

Mind Reader

One of the first ideas that came to my mind was a machine that is able to read the minds of criminals. Instead of wasting endless hours interrogating them, however, my ideal invention would be a device that enables people who cannot communicate, to make their thoughts known. 

I would use a simple chip that sticks onto someone’s forehead (or wherever they want to stick it) that transmits thoughts wirelessly to a computer screen (iPad, tablet… etc.) in the same room. Individuals who are unable to communicate verbally, with sign language or through writing could use the machine. Perhaps, some day, the device could even translate thoughts into spoken words. The user would also be able to manipulate the device to suppress thoughts that he/she does not want to share. Disabled individuals, who yearn to express themselves or just socialize, could make use of this device. I guess the device could also be used as an alternative to interrogation, but then the feature that deactivates unwanted thoughts would have to be turned off.  

Dr. Fiske and (de)humanization

Stereotype Content Model (SCM)

I really enjoyed Dr. Fiske’s lecture on Friday on (de)humanization as she discussed the ways in which people make sense of other people and how this affects their responses in various situations. The results of her research regarding the stereotype content model (SCM, pictured to the right) show that not all stereotypes are negative and that emotions play a large part in forming them.  


In addition, I found the “trolley dilemma,” (pictured below) which illuminates how individuals decide upon the most appropriate action when confronted with moral uncertainties to be a very interesting concept. Her explanation of the systematic differences between in-groups and out-groups also really resonated with me.

Trolley Dilemma: What would you do?

I particularly liked her segment on “over-humanization” in which she spoke about how people differentially attribute social cognition to different species of animals. It’s fascinating to realize that we do in fact have feelings of pride and admiration when thinking about cats, dogs, monkeys or elephants. Overall, the research shows that prejudice is not just a general feeling of dislike for a certain group and that the concept is actually much broader and goes much further in affecting how individuals conduct their daily lives.