X-Message-Number: 18555 From: Transoniq <> Subject: cryo-envy... Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 19:12:33 -0800 (PST) The cryonics community might want to take into account the human trait demonstrated in the following study when deciding whether or not to push growth. A safer tactic may be for cryonics organizations to be big enough to be viable and defend themselves but not so big to be showing up on a lot of radar screens. So far, we're either not noticed or written off as a bunch of nuts - this can be frustrating, but it's not without its upside. If folks actually thought cryonics worked there'd be hell to pay. The University of Warwick New Research Shows Just How Much We Hate Winners Date :12/02/2002 Type : Press Release New research by economists at the Universities of Warwick and Oxford has provided surprising information on just how much people hate a winner. It also shows what lengths human beings are prepared to go to damage a winner out of a sense of envy or fairness. The researchers, Professor Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick and Dr Daniel Zizzo of Oxford, designed a new kind of experiment, played with real cash, where subjects could anonymously burn away other peoples money - but only at the cost of giving up some of their own money. Despite this cost to themselves, and contrary to economists usual assumptions, 62% of those tested chose to destroy part of other test subjects cash. In the experiment, half of all the laboratory earnings were deliberately destroyed by fellow subjects. Everyone in the laboratory sessions was anonymous and hidden. The subjects had only a computer terminal, into which they played, and in which they could see how much other people were winning. In each session, the test subjects began with a betting stage which gave them some money (about 10 pounds but sometimes much more) creating an unequal wealth distribution. In the final stage, the burning stage, subjects could if they wished eliminate (burn away) other peoples money but only by giving up some of their own cash winnings. At the most expensive level, they had to give up 25 pence to destroy 1 full pound owned by someone else. It was made clear to the subjects that burning others would reduce the cash of the person choosing to burn. The economists expected little burning, and especially that the laboratory subjects would stop destroying other peoples money once the price reached 0.25, but in fact they found that even this high price did little to stop people annihilating other peoples wealth. Most individuals still chose to hurt others, despite the large cost to their own pocket. The researchers found that those given who gained the most additional money at the betting stage, burned poor and rich alike , however disadvantaged laboratory subjects mainly targeted those subjects that they saw getting what they perceived as undeserved financial windfalls. The authors concluded that our experiment measures the dark side of human nature. The full paper is in PDf format at this link http://www.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/Economics/oswald/paris.pdf Professor Andrew Oswald, Professor of Economics University of Warwick Tel: 024 76 523510 (Office) 01367 860005 (Home) Web http://www.oswald.co.uk email: (office) (home) Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18555