The Golden Rule

I heard a presentation by an economist this week about an experiment he had run which attempted to measure whether people abided by the Golden Rule in their economic interactions:

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." 

- Luke 6:31

This is a very interesting question and it would be fascinating to know the extent to which people treat others as they wish to be treated themselves. Sadly, however, the paper in question did not live up to expectations and was flawed. Empirically measuring motivation is hard!

But it did get me thinking... 

Why do I care about someone else's motivation? Surely if I am the coldly rational man that neoclassical economics assumes me to be, then I shouldn't worry about motivation; I should just care about their actions that effect me. But experimental evidence shows that people do care about motivation. They act differently if they think someone is trying to be nice or trying to screw them over (even if the action they observe is the same). Indeed, experiments show that people don't always act in the way that a coldly rational economist might expect them to.

It would seem that there is something inherent in us that does care about motivation. That does pay heed to things beyond monetary payoff. That does give a damn about morality. 

Potentially heretical thoughts for an economist, I know.