Biology 1001A Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Ultimatum Game, Cultural Intelligence, Hominidae
16 Aug 2017
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Document Summary
Meaning of cultural intelligence, ultimatum game, rational maximizer. The brains of homo sapiens are approximately three times as large as those of great apes such as the chimps and bonobos. Brain tissue has a very high metabolic rate, so growing and operating a large brain imposes significant costs. The cultural intelligence hypothesis proposes that large brain size in humans reflects cognitive skill sets absent from great apes. The ultimatum game is an economic decision-making tool for assessing the responses of individuals to opportunities and the behaviour of others. The first player (the proposer) receives a sum of money and proposes how to divide the sum between himself and another player. The second player (the responder) chooses to either accept or reject this proposal. If the second player accepts, the money is split according to the proposal. If the second player rejects, neither player receives any money. The game is typically played only once so that reciprocation is not an issue.
