Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problems than we realize

Re:Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problem... by arieskg on Friday July 14, 2017 @11:51PM (#14774961)

Instead of overthinking and assume that people don't want to upset social hierarchy, I suggest the researchers to take a step back and consider that people prefer symbiotic over the antibiotic scenario. In this "game", we may not know how A came to wealth, but we would be certain how A lost wealth. Similarly in the second scenario, while we know B is still less wealthy compared to A, at least B is wealthier than before. Value creation vs Value transfer. (Entrepreneur v. Investment Banker)

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Re:Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problem... by caseysoftware on Saturday July 15, 2017 @01:06AM (#14775111)

I was wondering about this too.. when I got to the part about how the Tibetan herders were even more against rank reversal, it reinforced it for me.

When someone is a herder, the only way to earn wealth is by working long hours, busting your butt day in day out, and being careful about what you have.

I'd wager their mindset is that they know the pain, effort, and time it takes to accumulate wealth so they're loathe to take it from someone else.

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Re:Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problem... by pmoriarty on Saturday July 15, 2017 @01:41AM (#14775177)

"they know the pain, effort, and time it takes to accumulate wealth so they're loathe to take it from someone else"

Except that the scenario was explicitly designed to make clear that the wealth in question was not a result of effort but was acquired purely randomly.

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Re:Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problem... by unclebucknasty on Saturday July 15, 2017 @02:14AM (#14775252)

Yeah, but not sure that simple statement is enough to completely undo generations of cultural belief/experience regarding how wealth is earned.

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Re:Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problem... by jonathankoren on Saturday July 15, 2017 @04:24AM (#14775640)

> they know the pain, effort, and time it takes to accumulate wealth so they're loathe to take it from someone else

Or they believe in divine right / hereditary caste system. In fact a long established hereditary caste system was dominate in 1959[0], Thinking that some long standing social construct is simply going to evaporate is a bit naïve.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_Tibet

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Re:Rank-reversal aversion may be causing more social problem... by ivanbakel on Saturday July 15, 2017 @11:25AM (#14777112)

That doesn't really explain the difference in behaviour in the experiment, though, because the money was explained as being dealt randomly. In the game, we know exactly how both parties came to wealth - the point is that people still value that wealth despite it being random.

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