Ultimatum Game Hypothesis

The ultimatum game is a scientific study that provides insight into the human condition through converging aspects of adversity and fairness, in wealth distribution. Observing past studies and analysing the methodological structure of the experiment and the established data enables us to contemplate the Hypotheses and attempt to create a strong link between the data and the hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1 of the experiment states that Proposers are more likely to make unfair offers in the gain frame condition of the Ultimatum game as opposed to the loss frame condition. This Hypothesis is supported by the existing data which shows that 51 offers were made in the gain frame, as opposed to 28 in the loss frame; this reinforces Hypothesis 1 as it shows a statistically significant difference in offers between the gain and loss frames. This statistical difference creates a link between the data and Hypothesis 1 which, in turn, rejects the null hypothesis as proven by the p value of 0.009. In addition, Hypothesis 2 states that acceptors will be more likely to accept very unfair offers in the loss frame condition than in the gain frame condition. This hypothesis is supported by the evidence recorded from the Ultimatum game as 24 very unfair offers were accepted in the loss frame as opposed to 14 very unfair offers being accepted in the gain frame. This link between Hypothesis 2 and the recorded data, also rejects the null hypothesis as reinforced by the p value of .026. In contrast, Hypothesis 3 is statistically insignificant due the higher value of p. This higher value provides greater room for error and rejects the link between the data and the Hypothesis.

The methodological structure of the experiment presents some possible discrepancies...

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...utomatic assumption that the loss frame correlates with unfairness.

Fowler and Christakis (2013) explain that “variation in ultimatum gameplay is heritable”. Future research that could be conducted in order to improve the results of the ultimatum game, include the reduction of the number of people in each experiment, which will help decrease this genetic inclination to decline offers due to the unfairness that is being perceived by the acceptor. Maintaining the study within a similar group of people (i.e.: all studying psychology), will also be beneficial as bias will be avoided when conducting the experiment.

References

Fowler, J. & Christakis, N. (2013). A random world is a fair world. 110, 10-11

Zhou, X. & Wu, Y. (2011). Sharing losses and sharing gains: Increased demand for fairness under adversity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 582-588