Reciprocity in Student Groups: Experimental Evidence From Greece

Abstract

Every correlated theory on the decision-making process takes for granted that individuals have a self-seeking behaviour in a self-regulating economic system. That means that under emergency and risk situations subjects make decisions following the above theories, among fixed-various alternatives. Nevertheless, the results have emerged from many investigations of recent years indicate a completely different approach on people's everyday decision making. Elements of human character such as justice, altruism and reciprocity seem to overlap the overall aspects of them. So, in this paper we aim to investigate the existence of reciprocity, or not, in student communities. In order to achieve this, two games of Game Theory list were adopted and applied in two different Greek Universities while Experimental Economics methods were used. These non-cooperative games (Ultimatum & Dictator game) interacted as one in an uncertain environment. The results of the experimental process showed a reciprocal behaviour (positive or negative) among students with small differences between the two universities.