Religion and Fairness in the Ultimatum Game: Examining Mennonite Beliefs and Actions

This study examines religion's impact on ultimatum game outcomes by focusing on Mennonite students, faculty, and staff at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Virginia, USA. Despite doctrinal statements emphasizing community and material concern for the poor, Mennonite offers in the game are n...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and business ethics 2015-01, Vol.3 (2)
Main Authors: Gingrich, Chris D, Swartzentruber, Ryan, Kraybill, Jessica H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Business ethics
Economics
Economists
Experiments
Game theory
Income inequality
Laboratories
Libraries
Mennonite churches
Polls & surveys
Preferences
Religion
Self interest
Valuation
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Summary:This study examines religion's impact on ultimatum game outcomes by focusing on Mennonite students, faculty, and staff at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Virginia, USA. Despite doctrinal statements emphasizing community and material concern for the poor, Mennonite offers in the game are not statistically different from other Christian groups. However, there is some indication that the mean offer in this particular sample exceeds those in existing studies. One possible reason for the higher offers could be the EMU campus ethos that emphasizes social justice issues. Also, the higher offer values suggest increased altruism if Proposers correctly foresaw that Responders would reject very few low offers.
ISSN:2153-0319