Never mind the quality, look at the width
the new york times has a fascinating snippet on how cooperation with others to get a monetary it worth someone’s while is not influenced by the value of the reward, but by the numbers that outline it.
In the study, when the reward was described as rising from 3 cents to 300 cents cooperation increased - but when it was described as rising from 3 cents to 3 dollars, it had no effect.
The experiment was carried by psychologists Ellen Furlong and John Opfer who were interested in comparing how our reasoning is affected by the representation of value.
The researchers asked volunteers to take part in a behavioral test known as the prisoner’s dilemma, in which two partners are offered various rewards to either work together or defect.
The idea is that in the long term, the participants earn the most money by cooperating. But in any given round of play download sci-fi, they make the most if they decide to turn against their partner while he stays loyal. (The reward is lowest when both partners defect.)
When the reward for cooperation was increased to 300 cents from 3 cents, the researchers found, the level of cooperation went up. But when the reward went download horror from 3 cents to $3, it did not.
We covered a study late last year that also found a similar effect: people were swayed more by higher numbers in adverts even when the alternative described exactly the same thing but using smaller units.
Link to short NYT piece ‘$1? No Thanks. 100 Cents? You Bet’. Link to academic article on study. Link to DOI entry for same.
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