M.M. Are we more selfish when money is involved?
G.C.
I want to get the words
straight and correct you
a little bit in terms of
language. In economics,
selfishness and altruism
are very precise concepts, so I prefer not
to use those types of
words, though in com-
mon language you can
use them. Basically individuals tend to be cooperative with others, that
is, they tend to sustain
personal costs to help
others when money is
not involved, and as
soon as money gets
involved, this tendency
to try to cooperate with
others, over time, is
greatly diminished. So if
you want to call it selfishness you can think of
it in that way it’s more
self-interested.
M.M. It’s very interesting what you’re saying because in Spain (where I
come from), people are suffering a very big economic recession at the
moment, but at the same time there is much growth of solidarity. Do you
think that can be related to your theory?
G.C.
Definitely. The point
here, and the precedence here, is that we
did a laboratory experiment, so all you can
get out of the data is
some intuition for how
behavior might be rep-
licated outside the lab
so it gives us a point,
a way to think about
behaviors in society, but
you’re right. So what we
found in the experiment
is that people were able
successfully, to a certain
32
extent, but not fully to a
certain extent they were
successful, at dispelling
social norms of mutual
support, cooperation,
as you say, or reciprocity, in a certain sense,
when there was no way