Week Nine: Favorite Economic Game

Only true altruistic human being - St. Theresa?

One of the most interesting economic games to me is the dictator game with the third participant. It's very interesting to see that the third participant, given the ability to punish unfair behavior, will do so, even at his own expense. This to me shows perhaps an altruistic (albeit a vengeful kind of altruism) side to human behavior. This third participant neither gains nor loses from the interaction between the dictator and the recipient, yet still feels compelled to punish unfair divisions of the money endowment. This kind of behavior may seem to be in opposition to my general belief in humans being naturally selfish beings, incapable of altruism. The concept of altruism is a difficult one for me to have faith in, because even when we do good deeds, even if it has no tangible benefit to us, it still makes us feel better about ourselves - so wouldn't this still be considered acting just to improve our own personal life by improving out self-image? This punishment of unfair behavior may just be putting ourselves in the shoes of the recipient or just making ourselves feel better about ourselves by helping out the gypped recipient. Call me a cynic here, but I don't think altruism really exists, not even in the dictator game.