Research master thesis | Psychology (research) (MSc)
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Past studies have offered conflicting findings on how wealth affects the way people behave when self-interest and fairness considerations are in conflict. The present study aimed to investigate...Show morePast studies have offered conflicting findings on how wealth affects the way people behave when self-interest and fairness considerations are in conflict. The present study aimed to investigate this conflict further by using the household task to experimentally induce the feeling of financial scarcity, then having the participants play an ultimatum game as both the proposer and responder. It was expected that people who experienced scarcity would make lower offers in the ultimatum game than those who experienced abundance. Furthermore, I hypothesized that people who experienced scarcity would accept lower offers in the ultimatum game than those who experienced scarcity. The first hypothesis was supported by the data, however the second one was not. It appears that under financial scarcity people become more motivated to serve their self-interest and are less interested in fairness considerations.Show less
