The Gift and the Centipede

Abstract

The work of Marcel Mauss is mostly unknown to economists. Only few references to the Gift, Mauss' best known work, are to be found in the economic literature (e.g. Kranton, 1996). This is also true for behavioural economics even if authors from this field regularly address topics such as reciprocity and other forms of non-selfish behavior. These topics are closely related to the Gift. Economic anthropologists also tend to be scarcely aware of the developments in behavioural economics and the related research methods and findings. They appear, instead, to nourish the long established enemy image of neoclassical theory (e.g. Hann & Hart, 2011). By and large, applications of behavioural economics methodologies are rarely found (but see Henrich, 2000;Henrich et al., 2001).Mutual acceptance of key concepts and knowledge about different methodologies of the other discipline, however, may be fertile ground for developing existing concepts further. This short note addresses a specific case. It states that the concept of the Gift, as developed by Marcel Mauss (1923/1924) nearly 100 years ago, can serve as a contextual framework of the Centipede game. The Centipede game is one of the workhorses used in behavioural economics and it has been tested in many different variations in the lab and in the field. The purpose of this note is not only to bring Mauss's work to the attention of economists, but also to attract anthropologists' attention to methods used in economics which can be fruitfully applied to their research topics.The structure of the text is as follows: Section 2 briefly outlines the idea of the Gift. Section 3 introduces a standard Centipede game and provides a short literature review of empirical findings. Sections 4 sets the Centipede game in the context of the Gift and addresses similarities and dissimilarities. Section 5 is dedicated to the discussion of game trees. The last section concludes. The GiftMarcel Mauss's (1990) concept of the Gift has to be considered within his general approach to society. According to him, individual decisions depend on both individual freedom and social obligations (Hart, 2007:481). Mauss (1990:70) writes that a citizen "[…] must act by taking into account his own interests, and those of society and its subgroups." In this sense a person acts as an individual within a given social context. Mauss (1990:39-43) examines the Gift in specific potlatch cultures and also in a European historical context and refers to three immanent obligations. Firstly, he addresses the 'obligation to give'. This obligation is central for groups and for individuals within a given social order so as to preserve a social position through the signalling and demonstration of wealth, fortune, being blessed by the spirits and gods, etc. This obligation goes hand in hand with a compulsory invitation to gift giving occasions, i.e., the spread of information to all potential receivers of gifts before a gift-giving occasion takes place; for instance, the invitation to a feast. Secondly, the invited are 'obl...

The Gift and Open Science

“…Norms and consequences are harsh, so that free-riding -that is, non-giving -becomes related to comparatively high social costs if detected. The situation resembles a centipede game in science (Egbert 2017b).…”