Readings | Insights from Game Theory into Social Behavior | Economics

Course readings.
TOPICS	READINGS
Sex ratios	Cameron, Elissa Z., and Frederik Dalerum. "A Trivers–Willard Effect in Contemporary Humans: Male–Biased Sex Ratios among Billionaires." PLoS ONE 4, no. 1 (2009): e4195. Herre, Edward Allen. "Optimality, Plasticity and Selective Regime in Fig Wasp Sex Ratios." Nature 329 (1987): 627–29. Osborne, Martin J. "Darwin, Fisher, and a Theory of the Evolution of the Sex Ratio." (PDF) Department of Economics, McMaster University, December 1996. Smith, J. Maynard., and G. R. Price. "The Logic of Animal Conflict." Nature 246. (1973): 15–8. Thogerson, Collette M., Colleen M. Brady, et al. "Winning the Genetic Lottery: Biasing Birth Sex Ratio Results in More Grandchildren." PLoS ONE 8, no. 7 (2013): e67867. Trivers, Robert L., and H. Hare. "Haploidploidy and the Evolution of the Social Insect." Science 191, no. 4224 (1976): 249–63. Trivers, Robert L., and Dan E. Willard. "Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ration of Offspring." Science 179, no. 4068 (1973): 90–2. United Nations Statistics Division. "Table 10." (PDF) Demographic Yearbook. 2004.
Evidence for learning and why learning leads to Nash Equilibrium	Field, T. M., R. Woodson, et al. "Discrimination and Imitation of Facial Expression by Neonates." Science 218, no. 4568 (1982): 179–81. Henrich, Jospeh, and Francisco J. Gil–White. "The Evolution of Prestige: Freely Conferred Deference as a Mechanism for Enhancing the Benefits of Cultural Transmission." Evolution and Human Behavior 22, no. 3 (2001): 165–96. Henrich, Joseph, and Natalie Henrich. "The Evolution of Cultural Adaptations: Fijian Food Taboos Protect Against Dangerous Marine Toxins." Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences 277, no. 1701. (2010): 3715–24. Horner, Victoria, Darby Proctor, et al. "Prestige Affects Cultural Learning in Chimpanzees." PLoS One 5, no. 5 (2010): e10625. Watanabe, Shigeru, Junko Sakamoto, et al. "Pigeons' Discrimination of Paintings by Monet and Picasso." Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior 63, no. 2 (1995): 165–74. Billing, Jennifer, and Paul W. Sherman. "Antimicrobial Functions of Spices: Why Some Like It Hot." The Quarterly Review of Biology 73, no. 1 (1998): 3–49.
Hawk–Dove and rights	Kummer, H., W. Götz, et al. "Triadic Differentiation: An Inhibitory Process Protecting Pair Bonds in Baboons." Behaviour 49, no. 1 (1974): 62–87. Gintis, Herbert. "The Evolution of Private Property." (PDF) 2006. Davies, N. B. "Territorial Defence in the Speckled Wood Butterfly (Parage Aegeria): The Resident Always Wins." Animal Behavior 26 (1978): 138–47. DeScioli, Peter, and Bart J. Wilson. "The Territorial Foundations of Human Property." Evolution and Human Behavior 32, no. 5 (2011): 297–304. DeScioli, Peter, and Rachel Karpoff. "People's Judgments About Classical Property Law Cases." Unpublished manuscript. Brandeis University. Sigg, Hans, and Jost Falett. "Experiments on Respect of Possession and Property in Hamadryas Baboons (Papio Hamadryas)." Animal Behaviour 33, no. 3 (1985): 978–84.
Subgame Perfection and Emotions	Pinker, Steven. "Hotheads." Chapter 6 in How the Mind Works. W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. ISBN: 9780393334777. Frank, Robert H. Chapter 1, and Chapter 3 in Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions. W. W. Norton & Company, 1988. ISBN: 9780393960228. Ekman, Paul. "Are There Basic Emotions?" Psychological Review 99, no. 3 (1992): 550–3. ———. "Strong Evidence for Universals in Facial Expressions: A Reply to Russell's Mistaken Critique." Psychological Bulletin 115, no. 2 (1994): 268–87. Ekman, Paul, Richard J. Davidson, et al. "The Duchenne Smile: Emotional Expression and Brain Physiology II." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58, no. 2 (1990): 342–53. Russell, James A. "Is There Universal Recognition of Emotion From Facial Expression? A Review of the Cross–Cultural Studies." Psychological Bulletin 115, no. 1 (1994): 102–41. Reed, Lawrence Ian, Katharine N. Zeglen, et al. "Facial Expressions as Honest Signals of Cooperative Intent in a One–Shot Anonymous Prisoner's Dilemma Game." Evolution and Human Behavior 33, no. 3 (2012): 200–9.
Beauty Costly signaling Wright–Fisher Reinforcement learning	Andersson, Malte. "Female Choice Selects for Extreme Tail Length in a Widowbird." Nature 299 (1982): 818–20. Evans, Matthew R., and B. J. Hatchwell. "An Experimental Study of Male Adornment in the Scarlet–Tufted Malachite Sunbird: II. The Role of the Elongated Tail in Mate Choice and Experimental Evidence for a Handicap." Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 29, no. 6 (1992): 421–7. Newman, George E., and Paul Bloom. "Art and Authenticity: The Importance of Originals in Judgments of Value." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 141, no. 3 (2012). Sosis, Richard, Howard C. Kress, et al. "Scars for War: Evaluating Alternative Signaling Explanations for Cross–Cultural Variance in Ritual Costs." Evolution and Human Behavior 28, no. 4 (2007): 234–47. Sosis, Richard. "Why Aren't We All Hutterites? Costly Signaling Theory and Religious Behavior." (PDF) Human Nature 14, no. 2 (2003): 91–127.
Altruism	Andreoni, James, Justin M. Rao, et al. "Avoiding The Ask: A Field Experiment on Altruism, Empathy, and Charitable Giving." NBER Working Paper No. 17648, December 2011. Yoeli, Erez, Moshe Hoffman, et al. "Powering Up with Indirect Reciprocity in a Large–Scale Feld Experiment." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (2013). Axelrod, Robert, and Richard Dawkins. "The Success of TIT for TAT in Computer Tournaments," and "The Live–and–Let–Live System in Trench Warfare in World War I." Chapter 2, and 4 in The Evolution of Cooperation. Basic Books, 2006. ISBN: 9780465005642. [Preview with Google Books] Dana, Jason, Daylian M. Cain, et al. "What You Don't Know Won't Hurt Me: Costly (But Quiet) Exit in Dictator Games." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 100, no. 2 (2006): 193–201. Dana, Jason, Roberto A. Weber, et al. "Exploiting Moral Wiggle Room: Experiments Demonstrating an Illusory Preference for Fairness." Economic Theory 33, no. 1 (2007): 67–80. Haley, Kevin J., and Daniel M. T. Fessler. "Nobody's Watching? Subtle Cues Affect Generosity in an Anonymous Economic Game." Evolution and Human Behavior 26 (2005): 245–56. Trivers, Robert L. "The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism." The Quarterly Review of Biology 46, no. 1 (1971): 35–57 Wilkinson, Gerald S. "Reciprocal Food Sharing in the Vampire Bat." Nature 308 (1984): 181–4 Karlan, Dean, and John A. List. "Does Price Matter in Charitable Giving? Evidence from a Large–Scale Natural Field Experiment." American Economic Review 97, no. 5 (2007): 1774–93. Desvousges, William H., F. Reed Johnson, et al. "Measuring Nonuse Damages Using Contingent Valuation: An Experimental Evaluation of Accuracy." (PDF – 3.0MB) Research Triangle Institute, 2010. Axelrod, Robert. "Evolving New Strategies: The Evolution of Strategies in the Iterated Prisoners' Dilemma." (PDF) 2001.
Cooperating Without Looking	Hoffman, Moshe. "Cooperating Without Looking." (PDF) 2013. Roth, Alvin E. "Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets." Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, no. 3 (2007): 37–58. Rand, David G., Joshua D. Greene, et al. "Spontaneous Giving and Calculated Greed." Nature 489 (2012): 427–30. Tetlock, Philip E. "Thinking the Unthinkable: Sacred Values and Taboo Cognitions." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7, no. 7 (2003): 320–4.
Common Knowledge	Thomas, Kyle A., Peter DeScioli, et al. "The Psychology of Common Knowledge and Coordination." Rubinstein, Ariel. "The Electronic Mail Game: Strategic Behavior Under 'Almost Common Knowledge'." The American Economic Review 79, no. 3 (1989): 385–91. Aumann, Robert J. "Agreeing to Disagree." The Annals of Statistics 4, no. 6 (1976): 1236–9. Lee, James J., and Steven Pinker. "Rationales for Indirect Speech: The Theory of the Strategic Speaker." Psychological Review 117, no. 3 (2010): 785–807. Chwe, Michael Suk–Young. "Preface and Introduction." In Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. Princeton University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780691158280. [Preview with Google Books] Spranca, Mark, Elisa Minsk, et al. "Omission and Commission in Judgment and Choice." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 27, no. 1 (1991): 76–105. DeScioli, Peter, Rebecca Bruening, et al. "The Omission Effect in Moral Cognition: Toward a Functional Explanation." Evolution and Human Behavior 32, no. 3 (2011): 204–15.