What's the Biggest Behavior Game in Human History?

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

We really care about things other than how much money we have. We also, by the way, can be a little bit a vengeful. So we might get a lot of pleasure from keeping that person from enjoying our house. The biggestmo often run behavior game in human history is the ultimatum game. That's why you offer more than one cent and so we know that this is a pretty stable, predictable preference.

It's tempting to explain Russia's invasion of Ukraine with Putin's megalomania. Economist Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago talks about his book Why We Fight with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Blattman explains why only a fraction of rivalries ever erupt into violence, the five main reasons adversaries can't arrive at compromise, and the problem with trying to get into Putin's head (and why it's not all about Putin. Really).