Ultimatum Game

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong / Too Narrow8% picked this

   Contrary to a traditional assumption of theoretical economics, the behavior of participants in the Ultimatum Game demonstrates that people do not make

   The Ultimatum Game might be an instance in which people seem to act against their self-interest (although the emotional explanation the author cites would have been in a person's rational self-interest back when humans lived in nomadic tribes). But even if this experiment shows a time in which people seem to not act out of rational self-interest, the author was never trying to make a strong, sweeping claim that people do not make economic decisions out of rational self-interest. More importantly, this doesn't sound like the second to last sentence of the passage. This answer is telling us what people's reaction to the low offer isn't. The main point happens at the end of the passage, when it tells us what people's reaction to the low offer is.

   8%
2. B

   Correct77% picked this

   Although the reactions most commonly displayed by participants in the Ultimatum Game appear to conflict with rational self-interest, they probably result from

   Why this is right

   The warm-up clause gives us the Setup of this passage (the Curious Phenomenon). The main clause gives us the author's preferred Explanation. The first sentence of the last paragraph sounds a lot like this: our emotional apparatus has been shaped by millions of years of living in small groups Evolutionary value is shaped over millions of years. The "predisposition" refers to the language from the second to last sentence: we respond emotionally to low offers because we instinctively need to keep our self-esteem. The last sentence explains that this instinctive predisposition is "beneficial in future encounters".

   Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   77%
3. C

   Wrong Emphasis6% picked this

   Because our emotional apparatus has been shaped by millions of years of living in small groups in which it is hard to keep secrets,

   This grabs language from the last paragraph, but it misses the central topic of the whole passage: people's curious response to low offers in the Ultimatum Game.

   6%
4. D

   Wrong Point of View8% picked this

   People respond emotionally to low offers in the Ultimatum Game because they instinctively feel the need to maintain the strength of the

   This answer is focused on the right Setup, but it gets the Payoff wrong --- it's making it seem like the main point was the explanation in the second paragraph, that the author didn't think was as compelling as the explanation she offers in the final paragraph.

   8%
5. E

   Too Strong: primarily2% picked this

   When certain social and evolutionary factors are taken into account, it can be seen that the behavior of participants in the Ultimatum Game is

   The author is definitely not saying, in those final two conclusory sentences, that the answer to our riddle is "it's all about outcompeting rivals". Instead, the answer to our riddle is, "It's all about not looking like a sucker that people can take advantage of".

   2%