Human Nature: Justice, Efficiency and Culture

Abstract

Contrary to expectations of free market theory, people often do not behave as economic agents attempting to maximize their self-interests. It is being argued that choices are very often influenced by moral ideals. This makes the situation more complicated as behavioral patterns vary from culture to culture. This is in contrast to the psychological assumptions of man as a Rational Actor, in microeconomic theories. Choices people make in the ultimatum game experiments cannot describe situation of choosing between a particular amount of monetary gain and moral value. Human beings act according to what is most meaningful for an actor - not only economic, but in - ethical, religious, and ideological sense at a given moment.This article mostly deals with the phenomenological account of meaning-formation, and how these meaning-formation processes are dependent on culture. I. Introduction: Justice and efficiency are the two fundamental principles of human behavior. Justice is a moral ideal of human beings which they strive to achieve even in their everyday life situations. According to proponents of free market theory, these same human beings are expected to act as economic agents, trying to maximize their self-interests. So, there is an inherent conflict between the ethical ideal and the economic ideal. In the ultimatum game experiments respondents do not behave as monetarily self-interested agents all the way down. Rather, they act as moral agents thus rejecting offers which are monetarily beneficialto them, but at the same time seems unfair (to them). (Viik, Tonu; (Tallinn University, Estonia); Human Nature or Cultural Constructs:A Phenomenological Account of Justice and Efficiency Conflict; Homo Oeconomicus, 27(4):481-491 (2011)). Since a large part of this study revolves around phenomenological research, let us have a look as to what exactly it entails. According to definitions and explanations provided by Stanford, phenomenological approach identifies the phenomena - as to how it is perceived by the actors in a given situation. It always tries to illuminate the specific. The purpose is to gain insights and perceptions through inductive, qualitative methods. It is the study of experience from the perspective of the individual and is represented through the perspective of the research participants. This form of research is a paradigm of personal knowledge and subjectivity, and emphasizes the importance of personal perspective and interpretation. It helps usin understanding subjective experiences and provides insight into peoples motivations and actions.